THE 



SAYINGS OF THE GREAT FORTY DAYS, 



BETWEEN THE 



RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION, 



REGARDED AS THE OUTLINES OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, 



IN 



FIVE DISCOURSES: 



WITH AN EXAMINATION 

OP 

MR. NEWMAN'S THEORY OP DEVELOPMENTS. 



BY 

GEORGE MOBERLY, D.C.L. 

HEAD MASTER OF ■WINCHESTER COLLEGE. 



Fratres, pro magno audiri solent verba novissima parentis ituri in sepnlcrum, 
et contemnuntur Domini verba novissima ascendentis in coelum ? Existimemus 
Dominum nostrum testamentum scripsisse, et in testamento suo novissima verba 
posuisse. — S. Augustin. Serm. cclxv. de Asc. Dom. 

Ad dies quadraginta remoratus'est, ut de eo ad praecepta vitalia instrui possent, 
et discerent quas docerent. — S. Cyprian, de Idol. Van. 



FROM THE SECOND LONDON EDITION. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

H. HOOKER, CORNER OF EIGHTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS. 

1850. 



1550 



PHILADELPHIA: 
EKfl AND BAIRD, PRINTERS, NO. 9. SANSOM STREET. 



CONTENTS. 



DISCOURSE I. 

SAVINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 

Christianity founded on the Crucifixion and Resurrection. — Yet 
our Lord remained forty days on the earth, — 1st, To give proof 
of His resurrection. — 2ndly, To speak " the things pertaining 
to the Kingdom of God." — The teaching of the Gospels pros- 
pective, — I. The moral teaching. — II. The Parables. — III. The 
Discourses. — IV. The Acts. — V. The Miracles. — The teaching 
of the forty days present, immediate, and conveying powers. — ■ 
This teaching contains the written charter of the Church. — 
The relation of these sayings to other Scripture: 1. Earlier ; 
2. Later. — Sayings of the great forty days. — Summary of the 
Sayings. — There were probably others : these alone are 
written. . . . . . . ... 13 



DISCOURSE II. 
« 

THE ROYALTY, DELEGATION, AND PRESENCE. 

I. The Royalty of Christ. — 1. Given at the Resurrection. — 2. 
Predicted in the Old Testament. — 3. Anticipated in the Gospels. 
— 4. Recognized in the Epistles. — 5. Twofold: i. Heavenly; 
ii. Earthly.— II. The Delegation of the Church.— III. His 



4 



CONTENTS. 



own perpetual Presence. — 1. Predicted in the Old Testament: 
i. Prophecies of a Temple ; ii. The Temple itself a type ; iii. A 
Presence promised ; iv. God dwelt in his spirit among the J ews ; 
v. Other predictions. — 2. Anticipated in the Gospels. — 3. Re- 
cognized in the Epistles : i. In the structure of the Epistle to 
the Romans ; ii. Of the Epistle to the Colossians ; iii. In many 
separate passages. — IV. No touching till after the Ascension. 
— 1. Predicted in the Old Testament. — 2. Anticipated in the 
Gospels : i. The touch of Faith : ii. The touch of Love ; iii. 
The touch of the Holy Eucharist. .... 33 

DISCOUESE III. 

THE COMMISSIONS. 

Some of the Sayings acknowledge governors in the Church. — 
V. The Baptismal Commission. — 1. A commission to teach all 
nations predicted in the Old Testament and anticipated in the 
Gospels. — 2. A commission to give all nations forgiveness of 
sins with water, i. Predicted in the Old Testament; ii. Anti- 
cipated in the Gospels ; iii. Recognized in the later Scripture. 
— Comment of S. Augustine on St. John, i. 32. — iii. A com- 
mission to deliver the law of moral obedience. — Provision made 
for the pardon of post-baptismal sin. — 1. Access to the Father 
in Christ. — 2. Means of growth in grace. — VI. The Holy Ghost 
to remit and retain sins. — 1. Predicted in the Old Testament 
and anticipated in the Gospels. — Recognized in the Epistles. — 
VII. The Pastoral Commission. — 1. Predicted in the Old 
Testament. — 2. Anticipated in the Gospels. — 3. Recognized in 
the Epistles. — 4. Made to rest on love of Christ. — The Pas- 
toral Commission not confined to St. Peter. — 1. Because the 
Apostles are equal in other Apostolic powers. — 2. From the 
commentary of the later Scriptures : i. As contained in the 
account of the Council of J erusalem ; ii. as exhibited in the 
complete Apostolic equality of St. Paul ; iii. as shown in the 
independence of the Apostolic Churches. — 3. From the man- 
ner in which the Gospels speak of the Apostles and the 
Church. — 4. How our Lord is to be understood in addressing 
St. Peter only : i. The words contain no exclusion of others ; 



CONTENTS. 



5 



ii. The words are very parallel to St. Matt. xvi. 16 ; iii. The 
interpretation of St. Cyril of Alexandria ; iv. The interpreta- 
tion of St. Cyprian. — 5. The equality of the Apostles con- 
firmed from the tradition of the early Fathers ; i. St. Clement 
of Rome; ii. St. Ignatius; iii. St. Polycarp ; iv. St. Justin 
Martyr; v. Tertullian ; vi. St. Irenasus ; vii. Origen ; viii. 
Firmilian ; ix. St. Cyprian ; x. The case of St. Cyprian. — 
Greatness of St. Peter. . . . . . 79 

DISCOURSE IV. 

THE SACRED NAME. 

1. The Baptismal Commission resumed. Baptism into the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. — The 
name of God a very sacred thing. — The name of God a gra- 
dual revelation. — The name of God fully published after the 
Resurrection. — The name of Christ includeth that of the Holy 
Trinity. — This name the substance of Christian Truth. — The 
doctrine of it unexplained. — Hence came all dogmatic teach- 
ing in the Church. — Important to trace the principles of this 
great development of doctrine. — The development of the 
Creeds complex : i. Apostolic, of truths, and affirmative ; ii. 
Ecclesiastical, of words, and negative. — Power of the Church 
to develope : i. Not by adding new doctrines ; ii. But by de- 
fining old. — The name of God the name of the Church. — The 
name of God that into which we are received at Baptism. — 
This great name to be hallowed. .... 146 

DISCOURSE V. 

THE PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. 

VIII. The privileges of the baptized. — The Nature of Faith. — 
Two principal senses of Faith in Holy Scripture. — The greater 
blessedness of them that believe without seeing. — IX. The 
Promise of the Holy Ghost. — The most important, as giving 
life and force to all. 

Newman's Doctrine of Development .... 195 



Appendix 



233 



PREFACE 



TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



The following work, from one of the profoundest theolo- 
gians of this age, is commended to the careful study of all 
inquirers after Christian Truth. It has already passed through 
three editions in England, and attained the place of a stan- 
dard work on the great subject of which it treats. The sim- 
plicity of its style, its clear logical method, its deep reveren- 
tial views of Holy Scripture, its calm tone and Christian 
spirit, will no doubt secure for it the attention of thinking 
persons in all denominations* 

The great question of our age is allowed, on all hands, to 
be the Nature of the Christian Church — What is it? and 
How shall it he known ? Our author makes his appeal to the 
Bible, and finds in the recorded words of our Saviour during 
the Forty Days between His Resurrection and Ascension, the 
CJiarter — the Outlines of His Church. St. Luke tells us 
that during that mysterious tarrying on earth, He spoke 
u of tJxe things pertaining to the Kingdom of God" (Acts i. 
3.) And our author gathers together these " Sayings" in 
one, and by viewing them in connection with other portions 
of our Lord's teachings, and the spirit of prophecy, and the 
actual conduct of the Apostles, presents to m a wonderful 



8 



PREFACE. 



and striking harmony, and a full Church System imbedded in 
Scripture, and only as it were incidentally and casually coming 
to view. In other words, these "Sayings" furnish the hey 
with which the meaning of the Scriptures on this momentous 
subject of the Church is opened. 

This method of inquiry has certainly the merit of origi- 
nality in this age, though familiar, as will be seen, to holy men 
of old. May it be the means of guiding the humble in- 
quirer, in his perplexity, to the haven of a sure Faith, where 
he may abide peacefully " until the day dawn, and the sha- 
dows flee away." 

January, 1850. 



PREFACE 

TO THE 

FIRST EDITION. 



In submitting 4hese Discourses to the press, I am not with- 
out some uneasiness, that they may seem, at the first sight, to 
lie open to one of the heaviest charges that can be brought against 
Christian doctrine, that of Novelty. I trust, however, most 
earnestly, that any apparent novelty is confined to the manner 
of the argument, and that the dootrine will be found to be, 
in every point, accordant with the Holy Catholic Truth of 
God, as taught in the Church of England. 

The principles upon which the view taken in these Sermons 
depends, are, I believe, very commonly, nay, universally, ac- 
knowledged among theologians. It is allowed, as indeed it 
cannot be denied, that the Crucifixion and Resurrection of our 
Lord must needs have taken place as events, before the 
Church, in its full constitution and condition of privilege, 
could be founded. It is allowed, both as a fact, and as a 
consequence of the former position, that the teaching of our 
Lord before the Crucifixion is mostly (at least that part of it 
which refers to the Church) of a prospective kind, not intended 
to take effect in Institutions and Powers until after the events 
had taken place. It is often shown in separate instances, that 
particular sayings of our Lord, subsequent to his Resurrection, 
were the fulfilments, or, if I may so call them, the enactments 
of things promised in His earlier teaching j or, what is the 
same thing, that words spoken in the earlier teaching of Christ 
waited for the Resurrection before they gained their full force 
and meaning. So it is usual to regard the power imparted to 



10 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



the Apostles by the Breath of Christ, as recorded in the 
twentieth chapter of St. John, as fulfilling the promises of 
the sixteenth and eighteenth chapters of St. Matthew. So 
we are taught that the Institution of Holy Baptism was 
reserved till after the Resurrection, that it might be under- 
stood that the grace of Regeneration had been won in the 
Resurrection. 

All, then, that I have done is to adopt the principle assumed 
in these and other similar in stances, and apply it throughout. 
If there be this essential difference between the Sayings of 
our Lord before and after the Resurrection, then, no doubt, 
it is important to trace it as far as we can. If the Resurrec- 
tion be the event of such signal importance in our Lord's 
history, that the Institution of Holy Baptism, and the gift of 
the remitting and retaining of sins, owe their particular force 
as immediate and practical enactments, to the fact that the 
words were spoken after it had taken place, then it is surely 
interesting to inquire whether the other sayings which 
were spoken after the Resurrection may not have equally 
great and important bearings, in their separate subjects, for 
the same reason. 

If this be granted, then it does not seem to be too bold to 
observe, that the sayings of these great days, when so regarded, 
do, in a remarkable way, fall in with one another, and form 
something like a complete whole. Though spoken, more or 
less, as occasions seem to lead to them, some to one Apostle, 
some to all — now to convince the faithless, now to check the 
loving, — they nevertheless do present the outlines or linea- 
ments of something like a complete system. 

This system is, indeed, no other than the Church system ; 
which requires no other proof or support than the fact, that it 
was established by the holy Apostles, and has from them 
descended, with unbroken constitution, to the Church of Grod 
in every age. But it seems to me to be both interesting 
and important, if it he true, to be able to trace this system to 
something like a specific foundation in clear and unquestion- 
able words of Holy Writ. It is a great thing, if it be not 
altogether imaginary, to be able to point, as it were, to the 
original document, in which the outlines of the Constitution 
and Powers of the Church were laid down, not (as it would 
seem) without something of systematic completeness, by our 
holy Lord Himself. 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



11 



It seems to me that such a view affords a compact and 
available answer for the satisfaction of those who, bred within 
the Church, but unaccustomed to hear her claims highly 
stated, (whereby they are so unfortunate as not to feel the 
real weight of the traditional argument,) desire in good faith 
to know the grounds on which we assert that the Divine pro- 
vision for the salvation of mankind in Christ is the planting 
of them by Holy Baptism into the Church ; that the power of 
so doing, and pronouncing absolution of sin, is entrusted to 
the Apostles only, and those who derive from the Apostles ; 
and that, therefore, men must, by the ministry of Grod's 
priests, be placed within the Church, and continue in dutiful 
eommunion with her during their lives, if they wish to inherit 
the covenanted blessings. 

It is true that these Sayings of our Lord may be and con- 
stantly are urged in argument to this effect, independently of 
any such view as that taken in these Discourses ; but then, 
they are urged merely as independent texts^ capable of being 
balanced by other texts, occurring in any part of Holy Scrip- 
ture, and thereby are shorn of all the peculiar force and 
cogency which are seen to belong to them, when the circum- 
stances in which they were spoken are fully remembered. 

And this consideration suggests another not unimportant 
consequence of such a view as is here taken. It is not un- 
common in theological discussion, to hear one side appeal to 
any and every part of Holy Scripture, whether of the Old or 
New Testament, claiming to apply directly to the Church of 
Christ, to persons before or after baptism, to penitents or 
obedient disciples, without restriction of sense or consideration 
of circumstances, the actual words spoken to Patriarchs, to 
J ews under the Law, or to disciples before the Crucifixion ; 
and to hear their -adversaries simply protest against such a 
confusion, or put in a caution against the dangerous effects of 
it, without suggesting a rule by which the true analogous ap- 
plication of various parts of Holy Scripture is to be made : by 
which sort of arguments we run the risk of abusing the autho- 
rity of the older Scriptures as applied to the Church on the 
one hand, or of losing it altogether on the other. If, there- 
fore, these Sayings of our Lord do, in any degree, answer to 
the account here given of them, so as to be in any true sense 
" outlines of the kingdom of heaven," they will, to the same 
extent, serve for a rule of this kind. We shall know that 



12 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



whatever was said in the older Scriptures is to be applied to 
the Church in such a manner as to fall within, or at least to 
be consistent with, these great principles ; that the whole sub- 
ject, for instance, however largely or fully spoken of in 
Prophecy, of God's presence on earth, must, as a matter relat- 
ing to the Church, be so interpreted as to fall within and be 
consistent with the great Sayings of the perpetual Presence of 
Christ in the Church, and of the Holy Ghost in Christian 
people j that the whole topic of forgiveness of sins, however 
largely illustrated by God's earlier dealings with mankind, or 
proclaimed or prophesied in earlier writings, is to be seen 
through (or, at least, to be regarded not inconsistently with) 
the two great Sayings whereby the Lord instituted Holy 
Baptism to be the means of immediate, and the covenant of 
future, pardon, and breathed the Holy Spirit upon His Apos- 
tles for the remitting and retaining of sins; that all the 
promises of divine instruction and guidance into truth, whether 
given in older times, or by our holy Lord, find their fulfil- 
ment in the Sacred Name of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost, as the summary revelation of doctrine, and the 
descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, as the 
gift of light and understanding. The older Scriptures will be, 
as far as regards the Church, summed up into these great 
Sayings j whilst the later Apostolic writings, usages, and 
institutions, will supply the genuine and inspired commen- 
tary upon these Sayings themselves. 

Above all, if this view be not entirely false and unfounded, 
how strongly would it seem to exhibit the melancholy error 
of those who endeavour to strike, as it were, for themselves a 
religion and a hope, as sparks, out of the multiform Scriptures 
of God ; who, careless of succession or inheritance, forgetful of 
the manner in which promise and privilege, blessing, comfort, 
life, joy, and glory, are conveyed to mankind in and through 
the Apostolic company, claim to read, interpret and apply to 
themselves, whoever they may be, without stint or question, 
every word of Holy Writ, whensoever it was written, and to 
whomsoever it was addressed ! 

It is necessary to observe, that in the following Discourses, 
the Sayings of our Lord in these Forty Days are arranged, 
not chronologically, but as the subjects of them seemed to 
admit of being most naturally and easily connected together. 



DISCOURSE I. 



At' riixspZv ■fsdiapdxovta drttavofAsvos av-tols, xai %sy&v tU rtspl tiji 
3aaiX8tas tov 9sov. 

Being seen of them fort}* days, and speaking of the things pertaining to 
the Kingdom of God. — Acts i. 3. 

The great events upon which the whole system of the 
Christian religion rests, are the Crucifixion and Resurrection 
of our Lord. From the very fall of man, every thing of the 
nature of revelation of truth, or divine institution, bore refer- 
ence to them. With a view to them the whole course of the 
world, in respect of G-od's divine government, was arranged 
and ordered. The patriarchal and J ewish dispensations ; the 
prophecies, whether written or spoken, permitted among 
heathen nations or imparted to the chosen people ; the types, 
whether scattered over the face of external nature, or exhibited 
in the history of men ; the knowledge which God gave, and 
the ignorance which He winked at ; all the parts and portions 
of G-od's world, and His dealings with men, were framed and 
fashioned so as to be, in their respective degrees, modes of 
preparing the way for the great events of the history of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 1 These great events (prepared by the 
Incarnation, and sacredly completed by the Ascension) are 
the Crucifixion and the Resurrection from the dead. To these 



1 Acts xvii. 30. 
2 



14 SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. [DISC. 

events all things led ; for these events all things waited. 3 
Until these events had happened in the country of Judea, 
and at a particular point of time in the duration of the world, 
the very foundation-stones of the Gospel were not laid. The 
need of redemption had indeed existed long. The promise 
had been long given. The beginnings of the divine scheme 
of restoration had been long preparing. Example of life, and 
much preliminary doctrine had been delivered, first by pro- 
phets, and afterwards by the holy Son of God Himself; but 
until the sacrifice of the Cross began, and the resurrection 
from the dead completed the great victory over the evil 
spirits, and the final reconciliation of God with man, Christ- 
ianity, properly speakiDg, had no existence. In these events 
it was established, and on these it depends. 

The conquest over sin and death being thus achieved, our 
Lord had only now, it might seem, to rise to His Father's 
right hand, in order to resume the glory which He had be- 
fore the worlds ; leaving behind Him upon the earth as 
much evidence of the fact of his glorious resurrection as might 
suffice to confirm the faith of his disciples. He had now, it 
might seem, only to go up on high, leading captivity captive, 
and to receive and give to men those good gifts 3 of the Holy 
Spirit, the promise of the Father, whereby the Lord God 
should dwell forever amid His refounded Church, making 
each member of it a temple of the Holy Ghost, that the whole 
edifice together might be a temple of the Lord. 4 

But before He actually ascended, He passed forty days 
upon the earth ) seen occasionally, yet not constantly accom- 
panied by His Apostles ; His glorified body no longer sub- 
ject to the same laws as those of common men ; performing 
miracles, and holding discourses, until the objects of this 
tarrying upon the earth being accomplished, " He led them 

2 Rom. viii. 22. 

3 St. Matt. vii. 11, compared with St. Luke xi. 13. 

4 Compare 1 Cor. vi. 19, with 1 Cor. iii. 16, 2 Cor. vi. 16. 



SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 



15 



out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed 
them ; and it came to pass while he blessed them, he was 
parted from them, and carried up into Heaven." 5 

One object, it cannot be doubted, of this gracious delay of 
our Lord upon the earth, was to establish, by ample testi- 
mony, 6 the fact of His Resurrection. His glorified body was 
indeed not made visible to any but c to witnesses chosen 
before of Grod ;" 7 but in the course of these holy days, besides 
other 3 appearances, He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, 
after that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at 
once; after that He was seen of James, then of all the 
Apostles. For this 9 cause Apostles were permitted to doubt, 
and disciples to be slow of heart, that their hesitation and 
delay in believing might lay more surely the foundations of 
our faith. And the fact which they had thus fully known, 
they boldly and continually asserted, so that the preaching of 
the Glospel in the first few chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, 
is little else than a witnessing of the resurrection. 

5 St. Luke xxiv. 50. 

6 Se reddidit oculis intuendum, manibus contrectandum, asdificans 
fidem, exhibendo veritatem ; quoniam parum fuit humanas fragilitati et 
infirmse trepidationi tarn magnum miraculum uno die exftibere, et inde 
subtrahere, conversatus est cum eis in terra, quadraginta diebus, &c. — 
S. August, Serm. ccxlv. de Asc. Dom., vol. v. p. 1079. 

7 Acts x. 41. 1 Cor. xv. 5. 

8 Invenimus itaque apud quatuor Evangelistas decies commemoratum 
Dominum visum esse ab hominibus post resurrectionem. Semel, ad 
monumentum mulieribus. Iterum, eisdem regredientibus a monumento 
in itinere. Tertio, Petro. Quarto, duobus euntibus in castellum. Quinto, 
pluribus in Jerusalem, ubi non erat Thomas. Sexto, ubi eum vidit Tho- 
mas. Septimo, ad mare Tiberiadis. Octavo, in monte Galilsese, secundum 
Matthseum. Nono, quod dicit Marcus, novissime recumbentibus. Deci- 
mo, in ipso die non jam in terra, sed elevatum in nube, cum in coelum 
ascenderat. — S. Aug. de Consensu Evang. iii. 84. 

9 Ut dum a Domino in hoc spatium mora prsesentise corporalis ex- 
tenditur, fides resurrectionis documentis necessariis muniretur. Gratius 
agamus divinae dispensationi, et sanctorum Patrum necessarian tarditati. 
Dubitatum est ab illis, ne dubitaretur a nobis. — S. Leo, Serm. de Asc. 
Dom., vol. i. p. 190 



16 



SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 



[DISC. 



But besides this great object, it cannot be doubted also that 
the sayings of our Lord, uttered during these great days, are 
themselves also of signal and peculiar importance. They were 
spoken in His glorified body — spoken, as it were, more imme- 
diately from heaven. He seems, if we may say so with reve- 
rence, to have delayed His ascension in order to speak them. 
They are the first and great sayings of His new power given 
unto Him both in heaven and earth. They are, as St. Luke 
sums them up in the opening of the Acts of the Apostles, 
"the things of the kingdom of God." 1 They are, in general 
subject, manner, and circumstances, strikingly unlike to any 
sayings which he had ever uttered before. 

For it is to be much observed, that the teaching of our 
blessed Lord before the crucifixion, in so far forth as it 
respects the Church, and its privileges, powers, and blessings, 
is altogether of a prospective or anticipatory hind. His moral 
teaching is indeed of immediate, because of essential and 
eternal force. But even this portion of His doctrine, it may 
be confidently said, is never found alone. It is never found 
unaccompanied with some reference to the Gospel, and Gospel 
motives, and so to the events on which the Gospel was to be 
founded. Thus the duty of humility is urged by our Lord 
on the ground of His own example, and the hope of becoming 
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ; that of forgiveness on 
the ground of our own hope of forgiveness in the judgment ; 
that of watchfulness on the ground of the assured return of 
Him who was not yet gone away. 3 And thus, even in the 
Sermon on the Mount, which may be taken as the chief 
instance of moral teaching to be found in the Evangelists, the 
form of the precepts, the motives by which men are urged to 
comply with them, and the words in which they are delivered, 
are all plainly prospective. They belong to other times than 
those in which they were spoken, and new circumstances. 

1 Acts i. 3. 

2 St. Matt, xviij. 1 ; xi. 29 ; xviii. 24 ; xxiv. 42. 



I.] SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 17 

They presuppose an altered state of things, the state of things 
which was afterwards brought about by the Crucifixion and 
Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord. 3 What, for instance, 
are the blessings of the possession of the kingdom of heaven 
promised to the poor in spirit, the comfort of the mourners, 
the inheritance of the earth by the meek, the fulness of right- 
eousness of those who hunger and thirst for it, the mercy to 
the merciful, the sight of God to the pure, the estate of child- 
ren of God to the peace-makers, the possession of the kingdom 
of heaven to those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, 
but blessings which belong and are peculiar to the full estab- 
lishment and rich storehouse of Christ's Church? What, 
again, is the altar, what the gift, who the brother, who the 
Judge, who the officer, what the prison, what the uttermost 
farthing 4 , of the Christian exposition of the Sixth Command- 
ment, but the Christian altar, the offertorial gift, the brother 
in Christ, the Judge of quick and dead, the Angel of the 
Judgment, the chains and darkness, the ten thousand talents 
of the overwhelming debt of sin, made known to us in the full 
revelation of Christ's Church ? Or how could men call on 
their Father which is in heaven, except as being children of 
God by being made members of Christ ? or how could they 
receive the good things of the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer, 
until such time as the Holy Ghost was given, after Jesus was 
glorified ? 5 

And if this be true of such parts of our Lord's teaching as 
might be regarded almost as a republication of the natural 
law of eternal Morality, it is much more strikingly true of 
the vast body of His teaching, as contained in His parables 
and doctrinal discourses. 

Of the parables, it is plain that they are, without excep- 
tion, to be interpreted prospectively. This is clear, not only 
because our Lord, when speaking of his own teaching in 

3 St. Matt. v. 2—10. 4 St. Matt, v. 23—26. 

5 Ibid. vi. 9, 11. Of. St. Luke xi. 13. 
2* 



18 SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. [DISC. 

parables, says of them that at first they were intentionally 
dark and obscure, having voice and signification only for those 
who had spiritual understanding, but also plainly declares 
that this secret method of instruction was only intended to be 
temporary. " Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, 
or under a bed, and not to be set on a candlestick ? For 
there is nothing hid which shall not be manifested ; neither 
was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad K" 
So that we should be justified in saying, that the very object 
of the temporary concealment of truth under the guise of 
parables, was that after a time it should be the better known. 

It is also obvious to remark, that each separate parable is 
professedly a likeness or illustration of "the Kingdom of 
Heaven," the Church of Christ. They do not indeed illustrate 
the kingdom always exactly in the same sense ; for some of 
them refer to the militant, some to the triumphant kingdom \ 
some to the kingdom in its ruler, some in its subjects ; some 
to the kingdom in all its subjects together, some in its sub- 
jects separately ) some to the kingdom as comprising its 
subjects ; some to the kingdom as possessed (that is, the rights 
and blessings of it) by its separate subjects. Still in all alike, 
the one thing illustrated is the Kingdom of God, the Church. 
The various parables are so many mirrors or looking-glasses, 
each giving a true image, in anticipation, of some part or 
portion of the mystery of the kingdom hitherto unestablished. 
All together render a full and exact likeness of all the king- 
dom ; of its condition on earth ; the objects of its establish- 
ment its King, His absence and return ; its subjects, their 
variety, their duties, their helps, their privileges, their hopes, 
and their end. 

In the doctrinal Discourses, the prospective character of our 
Lord's personal teaching comes out with equal clearness. This 
will be seen from a slight inspection of the greater Discourses 
as recorded by St. John. 

1 St. Mark, iv. 21. 



I.] SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 19 

The first of these Discourses is contained in chapter iii. 
3 — 21. The greater part of this discourse, referring to Holy 
Baptism and the Crucifixion, plainly belongs to later times ; 
and the dangers of unbelief spoken of in the latter verses, 
though partly incurred already, were, no doubt, more fully 
applicable to the days in which the Crucifixion had actually 
taken place, and the New Birth of Water and the Holy Ghost 
was given. 

The second Discourse (St. John iv. 7 — 38) is upon the 
gift of the Holy G-host, spiritual worship, and the reward of 
preachers ; all which subjects belong, without question, to the 
times which succeed to the Resurrection, the Ascension, and 
the great Pentecost. 

The third Discourse (St. John v. 17 — 47), opening with 
the words, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," has 
for its principal subject the identity of operation of the Son 
with the Father, and the consequent equality of the Son, in 
honour and life-giving power, with the Father, as testified by 
St. John the Baptist, by the Father's works, and by the Old 
Testament Scriptures. In this Discourse, our blessed Lord 
partially reveals the doctrine of His own Divinity, to be after- 
wards more fully declared, and refers to those particular acts 
of His power, the resurrection of the dead, and the universal 
judgment, to be afterwards revealed, and believed in the 
Church. 

The fourth Discourse (St. John vi. 26 — 63) belongs 
altogether to the subject of the Holy Communion not yet in- 
stituted, and refers expressly to the Ascension, as the time at 
which the hardness of the sayings contained in it should 
receive their true spiritual solution. 

The fifth Discourse (St. John viii. 12 — 58), upon Himself 
as the light of the world, and His Divine Sonship, points 
equally clearly to the Ascension as the time when all these 
words would be established and certain, "When ye have 
lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He." 



20 



SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 



[DISC. 



The sixth Discourse (St. John ix. 39; x. 38), rising, appa- 
rently, out of the unbelief and hardheartedness of the 
Pharisees in the case of the man who had been born blind, 
exhibits under the image of sheep, sheepfold, and shepherd, 
the Church of Christ, the laying down of His own life, and 
the calling in of the G-entiles. 

The seventh Discourse (St. John xii. 23 — 36 ; 44—50) is 
a solemn anticipation of His approaching death and resurrec- 
tion, with the blessing of those who should receive, and the 
judgment of those who should refuse to believe in his words. 

The eighth Discourse (St. John xiii. 12 ; xvii. 26) is wholly 
occupied with His own approaching departure, and the state 
and prospects of His Church, after He, in the flesh, should 
be gone away. 

In like manner it is probable that all the events and acts of 
our Lord's holy life are to be understood as having, besides 
their immediate meaning, prospective reference of important 
kinds to the Church to be founded afterwards. Thus His 
sacred Baptism, besides any other mysterious meanings which 
it may have had, did, as we know since the ^Resurrection, 
hallow for ever " the flood Jordan 7 and all other waters to the 
mystical washing away of sin" in the Church. His myste- 
rious temptation, immediately (evdvs) following on His bap- 
tism 8 , besides attesting His true humanity, (a doctrine neither 
doubted nor appreciated till He was declared to be the Son of 
G-od with power by the resurrection from the dead,) also ex- 
hibited to the Church the great exemplar of resistance to 
spiritual evil in the baptized. His 9 washing of His Apostles' 

7 Baptismal Service, 1543. 

8 Dr. Mill's five Sermons, particularly pp. 36 — 51. 

9 Homo in sancto quidem baptismo totus abluitur, non prseter pedes, 
sed totus omnino : verunitamen cum in rebus humanis postea vivitur, 
utique terra calcatur. Ipsi igitur humani affectus, sine quibus in hac 
mortalitate non vivitur, quasi pedes sunt, ubi ex humanis rebus afficimur, 
et sic afficimur, ut si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos 
decipiamus et Veritas in nobis non sit. Quotidie igitur pedes lavat nobis 



I] 



SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 



21 



feet, besides many other lessons with which that sacred act was 
charged, signified the perpetual remission of daily sins of in- 
firmity to those who had once been fully washed in holy Baptism. 

His Transfiguration 1 , besides exhibiting His own glory, 
wherewith He shall return in judgment, showed forth the 
glorified 3 estate of those who are by degrees attaining the 
second regeneration, and so shall be Christ's at His coming. 

The Miracles, in the same way, of our Lord, have, for the 
most part, such clear and universally acknowledged reference 
to the times of the Church, that we should certainly under- 
stand them very inadequately if we were not to read them 
according to it. Such is the repeated miracle of the draught 
of fishes, referring to the bringing in of disciples into the 
Church, that great net cast into the sea (which instance illus- 
trates well the way in which miracles and parables have a 
joint doctrinal scope, and throw light on one another) ; the 
equally repeated miracle of the loaves and fishes (which 
equally illustrates, when compared with St. John vi., the con- 
nexion of miracles and discourses) ; and the various miracles 

qui interpellat pro nobis : et quotidie nos opus habere ut pedes lavemus, 
id est, vias spiritualium gressuum dirigamus, in ipsa oratione Dominica 
confitemur, cum dicimus, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos 
dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Si enim confiteamur, sicut scriptum est, 
peccata nostra, profecto ille qui lavit pedes discipulorum suorum fidelis 
est et justus qui dimittat nobis peccata, et mundet nos ab omni iniquitate, 
id est, usque ad pedes quibus conversamur in terra. — S. Aug. Tractat. lvi. 
et lvii. in S. Joban. Ev. c 13. (vol. iii. p. 657.) 

1 Such as He is to be in the time of judgment, such was He now seen 
of the Apostles. (S. Jerome.) The Transfiguration, which is the sacra- 
ment of the second regeneration. (Gloss, ap Anselm.) Aurea Catena, 
Oxf. 1841. S. Augustine, interpreting more minutely, says: " Quod illi 
ergo ad terram ceciderunt, hoc significaverunt, quod morimur ; — qnando 
very eos Dominus erexit, Kesurrectionem significavit. Post resurrec- 
tionem, ut qxiid tibi lex ? ut quid tibi Prophetse ? Ideo non apparet Elias, 
non apparet Moyses. Eemanet tibi. In Principio erat Verbum, et Verbum 
erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum." — S. Aug. S. Ixxx. de verb, 
Evang. Matt. xvii. (Vol. v. p. 426.) 

2 Cf. 2 Cor. iii. 18, ^tr a^op^ov^ada, with St. Mark ix. 2. 



22 



SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 



[DISC. 



of healing and raising the dead ; whether they be regarded as 
signs of Divine Power never to depart from the Church, as 
answers to prayer intended for the perpetual encouragement 
of Christians praying, as tokens of absolving power exercised 
by the Son of Man, or as direct types of the restoration from 
spiritual sickness and death, and the coming resurrection of 
souls and bodies to be given in the Church. 

We may, therefore, confidently assign this character, in 
general, to our Lord's teaching, whether delivered in precept 
or parable, miracle or significant act, before the Crucifixion. 
It was not so properly the actual preaching of the kingdom, 
as the preaching of the approach of the kingdom. It was not 
so properly the instituting 3 of the Christian Church, as the 
preliminary, and often obscure and difficult announcement of 
the events on which that Church was to be founded ; of a 
death to be undergone, a triumph to be achieved, powers to 
be given, institutions to be established, a Comforter to be 
sent. To such extent does this anticipatory character belong 
to our Lord's teaching, that even the mere expressions some- 
times partake of it ) witness the phrase " taking 4 up one's 
cross," in the sense of following the example of our Lord's 
sufferings, used repeatedly before the Crucifixion. 5 

But the case was altered when, having yielded to the death 
upon the cross, and by yielding conquered the powers of sin 
and death, He stood before them in His glorified body, having 

3 The passages, St. Matt. xi. 12, 13 ; xii. 28 ; St. Luke xvi. 16, may 
seem to bear against this conclusion ; but cf, St. Matt. iv. 17, as explain- 
ing the sense in which the kingdom of God was preached. Until John 
may probably mean till the beginning of St. John's preaching ; for 
rjyyix^v r) fiaotTisla is a different preaching from that of the Law and the 
Prophets. St. John Baptist was certainly not in the kingdom: St. Matt, 
xi. 11. Besides, the scribes still sat in Moses' seat, and had a right to the 
obedience of the people : St. Matt, xxiii. 2, 3 

4 Vide Grotium in S. Matt. x. 38. Metaphorice : calamitates ob doctrinse 
Christians professionem inflictse, non sine respectu ad mortem Christi» 
quam in cruce veritatis defensor subiit. Schleusner, in voce. 

6 St. Matt. x. 38 ; xvi. 24. St. Mark. viii. 34. St. Luke ix. 23. 



I.] SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 23 

received, in some manner in which He had not received it 
before, " all power in heaven and in earth." The kingdom 
of God, so long declared to be at hand, was now come. What 
had before been promised, was now to be given j that which 
was said in prediction and anticipation before, was now to be 
imparted in fact and reality. The candle 6 which hitherto had 
been, as it were, under a bushel or a bed, was now to be set 
upon its candlestick, to give light to all who were to be received 
into the Lord's refounded temple. Even yet, the fulness of 
light and power was to be withheld for a few days, until the 
full coming of the feast of Pentecost should bring the full 
effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles : but in these 
sacred forty days the words were spoken, the powers con- 
veyed, the promises ratified, the commission given, the dele- 
gation completed, the visible 7 Church founded. 

It is thus that in the opening of the Acts, St. Luke sums 
up the precious discourses of these great forty days, u telling 
them the things of the kingdom of God." 8 This description 
comprises all He uttered. The written sayings are few, not 
very various, some recorded by one, and some by another of 
the Evangelists; but altogether they contain that which the 
Lord saw fit to speak, and the Holy Ghost to record, as " the 
things of the kingdom." Spoken as no other words were ever 
spoken, in His royalty and glory, — spoken to convey, and in 
the very form of expression obviously conveying direct, imme- 
diate, actual commissions and powers, they form the charter 
of the kingdom, — of the kingdom which was to grow as a 
great tree from a little seed, which was as a net to inclose for 
a time both bad and good ; which was, as leaven, to affect, 
alter, and elevate by degrees the whole character and course 
of the world. 

6 Cf. Kuinoel in S. Joan. xvi. 22, 23. 

7 Bp. Pearson on the Creed, Art. ix. (vol. i. pp. 506—512.) 

8 Acts i. 3. 



24 SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. [DISC. 

Regarded thus as the great outlines of the kingdom, these 
great sayings are immediately seen to stand in an important 
relation, both to the earlier and later Scriptures. As respects 
the former, each one of them gives, as it were, the sketch and 
general form of one portion of the kingdom, which is supplied 
in its full detail, and, if I may so speak, articulated by means 
of many a dark anticipatory discourse of Christ, which could 
have been but little understood at the time when it was spoken, 
as well as by many a passage of the prophets, uttered in other 
times, and addressed primarily to other persons, but having 
undeniable reference to the times of the kingdom of Christ. 
Thus these sayings, illustrating and receiving illustration from 
the whole mass of earlier Scriptures, furnish something like a 
rule by which we may ascertain the applicability, or at least 
adjust the manner and degree of the application of these 
writings and discourses to the case of Christians in the Church. 
And in like manner, the conduct and language of the inspired 
Apostles, as recorded in the Acts and Epistles, furnish the 
true commentary of the Spirit upon these sayings. Given to 
the Apostles, with the gift of the Holy G-host to supply the 
wisdom and power requisite to carry them out into operation, 
we must needs look to see how, and with what institutions, 
manner of teaching, claims of authority, &c, the Apostles, 
under the Holy Spirit, executed them. Thus the structure 
of the Infant Church and the later Scriptures will be the true 
practical inspired commentary upon these sacred sayings, as 
they will themselves furnish the outlines within which to 
arrange, and the rule by which to interpret, the earlier lan- 
guage of Holy Scripture respecting the Church. 

The words of our Lord during these forty days, as recorded 
by St. Matthew, are as follows : — " And as they went to tell 
his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail ! And 
they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. 
Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid : go tell my 



I.] SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 25 

brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see 
me." 9 " Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, 
into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And 
when they saw him, they worshipped him : but some doubted. 
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is 
given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, 
lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. 
Amen." 1 

The following words are recorded by St. Mark : " Afterward 
he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided 
them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they 
believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. 
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 
And these signs shall follow them that believe : In my name 
shall they cast out devils • they shall speak with new tongues ; 
they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any deadly 
thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the 
sick, and they shall recover." 2 

In St. Luke we read of His appearing to the two disciples on 
their way to Emmaus ; when " He said unto them, What manner 
of communications are these that ye have one to another, 
as ye walk and are sad V And after that they had explained 
the causes of their sorrow, " He said unto them, fools, and 
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken : 
ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter 
into his glory ? And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, 
he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the things con- 
cerning himself." And after they had returned to Jerusalem, 

9 St. Matt, xxviii. 9, 10. 1 Ibid, xxviii. 16—20. 

2 St. Mark xvi. 14—18. 
3 



26 SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. [DISC. 

and stated these things to the eleven, " Jesus himself stood in 
the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 
But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they 
had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye 
troubled ? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Behold 
my hands and my feet, that it is T myself : handle me, and 
see j for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and 
his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and 
wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat ? And 
they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. 
And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto 
them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I 
was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which 
were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and 
in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their under- 
standing, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said 
unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to 
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his 
name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye 
are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the 
promise of my Father upon you : but tarry ye in the city of 
Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high 3 ." 

The sayings of our Lord recorded by St. John are longer 
and more numerous. "And when she had thus said, she 
turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not 
that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest 
thou ? whom seekest thou ? She, supposing him to be the 
gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, 
tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith 
unto him, Rabboni ; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith 
unto her, Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended to my 

3 St. Luke xxiv 36—49. 



I.] SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 27 

Father : but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend 
unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your 
God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she 
had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto 
her. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the 
week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were 
assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the 
midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he 
had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. 
Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then 
said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you : as my Father 
has sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said 
this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted 
unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained 4 . " 

" And after eight days again his disciples were within, and 
Thomas with them : then came Jesus, the doors being shut, 
and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then 
saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my 
hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side : 
and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered 
and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith 
unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast 
believed : blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
believed 5 ." 

The next sayings are recorded- by St. John in the twenty- 
first chapter. "So when they had dined, Jesus saith to 
Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than 
these ? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I 
love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to 
him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou 
me ? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I 
love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith 
unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? 
4 St. John xx. 14—23. » St. John xx. 26—29. 



28 SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. [DISC. 

Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, 
Lovest thou me ? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest 
all things ; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto 
him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When 
thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither 
thou wouldest : but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt 
stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry 
thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying 
by what death he should glorify Grod. And when he had 
spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Then Peter, turn- 
ing about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; 
which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, 
which is he that betrayeth thee ? Peter seeing him saith to 
Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith unto 
him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? 
follow thou me 6 ." 

These, then, are the sayings of the great forty days, the 
u tMngs of the kingdom of God." In the G-ospels they are, 
as we have seen, variously recorded, one evangelist supplying 
one saying, and one another, and occasionally two or more 
evangelists furnishing different portions of what may probably 
have been said at one time, or somewhat different versions of 
what may possibly have been the same words. They are also 
mingled up with acts, situations, and persons, all of which, no 
doubt, -being delivered to us by the Holy Grhost, have some 
important bearing upon truth and practice. Thus the holy 
Resurrection blessing, " Peace be unto you 7 ," itself anticipated 
in our Lord's prospective directions to His Apostles in former 
days, and adopted in all the Church as her sacred inheritance 
of Christian salutation, and intercommunion of love, — what 
is this but one of the first outpourings of mercy, from the 
Prince of Peace upon His people, to be afterwards diffused 

6 St. John xxi. 15—22. 

7 St. Luke xxiv. 36. St. John xx. 19. 21. Cf. St. Matt. x. 12. St. 
Luke x. 5. 



I.] 



SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 



29 



and dispersed by the Apostolic blessing of " grace and peace 
from G-od the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ/' to the 
separate Churches ? So, too, we cannot doubt, that the ex- 
positions of the prophecies made to the two disciples on the 
road to Emmaus, and to the whole company of Apostles after 
their return to Jerusalem, though only recorded in summary, 
not only confirmed the faith of the Apostles at the time, but 
also furnished them with the true model and example of 
prophetic exposition, showing them how u the Scribe instructed 
unto the kingdom of heaven bringeth forth, like an householder, 
out of his treasure things old and new 8 /' In like manner, 
the prophecies of St. Peter's death, and the tarrying of St. 
John, besides their direct bearing upon the immediate for- 
tunes of the Church in the person of those who " seemed to 
be pillars," may not improbably be understood to bear wider 
and more lasting reference to the Church, to the dignity of 
these great Apostles 9 , (whose thrones, with those of their 
brethren, should be established in the Regeneration,) to the 
greatness of martyrdom, and various other points of high 
ecclesiastical concern and importance. 

These words and acts, however, although they may thus 
have great and various meauings belonging to the Church, the 
kingdom of G-od, are, in their manner of statement, indirect, 
obscure, and uncertain. They are sayings, no doubt, of the 
great forty days, but, if I may so call them, secondary sayings ; 
not indeed to be neglected or undervalued in respect of their 
own proper and separate importance, but distinguishable in 
point of clearness, directness, and certainty, from the primary 
sayings of the same time. These great primary sayings, as 
they stand out amongst the discourses of these sacred days, 
seem to admit of being classified as follows : 

8 St. Matt xiii. 52. 

9 Gal. ii. 9. St. Matt. xx. 23 ; xix. 28. St. Luke xxii. 30. 

3* 



30 SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. [DISC. 

1st. Our Lord's own Royalty : " All power is given unto 
me in heaven and in earth." 

2dly. The commission of the Apostles: "Go ye therefore/' 
" As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." 

3dly. His own perpetual Presence : " And lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world." 

4thly. That He should not be touched till after his Ascen- 
sion : " Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my 
Father." 

5thly. The tradition of holy Baptism, with the law of 
obedience : " Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you." 

6thly. The Holy Ghost to remit and retain sins : " He 
breathed on them and said, Whose soever sins ye remit, they 
are remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they 
are retained." 

7thly. The Pastoral Commission, addressed directly to 
St. Peter, and made to rest upon love : " Simon, son of J onas, 
lovest thou me more than these ? Feed my lambs. Simon, 
son of J onas, lovest thou me ? Feed my sheep. Simon, son 
of Jonas, lovest thou me ? Feed my sheep." 

8thly. The privileges of the baptized and faithful. 1. Salva- 
tion : " He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." 

2. Miraculous powers : " And these signs shall follow them 
that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils ; they 
shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; 
and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ) 
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." 

3. The blessedness of them that believe without seeing : 
" Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." 

9thly. The immediate promise of the Holy Ghost : " And 
behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you." 



I.] SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 31 

Such, then, are the principal " things of the kingdom of 
God," which the Lord is recorded to have uttered during the 
great forty days in which He delayed His ascension into 
heaven. There probably were many other sayings, as well as 
deeds and signs, communicated to the Apostles during the 
same sacred period. 1 But these are written that we may 
believe, and believing, have eternal life ; these, whatever may 
have been the others, the Holy Grhost has chosen to record 
in writing, for the perpetual use and edification of the Church. 
If there were others, the traces of them will, no doubt, be 
found in the later teaching and institutions of the Apostles j* 
but of these there can be no doubt : they are the Lord's own 
written, sacred words; words which, whatever be the true 
meaning in which they are respectively to be understood, 
cannot but be at the very foundation of the constitution and 
privileges of the Christian Church. 

Of these separate sayings, some short examination will be 
made in the following Discourses. Each will be found to 
open a large field of Scriptural investigation. If the account 
now given of their place in the Christian scheme be at all a 
just one, each will be found to be, as it were, a principle of 
the kingdom ; to be, if we may so term it, the actual enact- 
ment of that which had been often spoken of, with various 
degrees of clearness and obscurity, before. They do not, 
indeed, supersede the earlier Scriptures. All, in their respect- 
ive places, exhibit the manifold wisdom of GJ-od, dividing at 
different times, and to different persons, severally as He would. 
But in a certain sense, they stand before them. They lead 
them j they throw light upon them ; they enable us to read 
them rightly, and arrange them truly in their application to 
the Church. Though all, no doubt, speak the mind of the 
Spirit, and are full of the truth of G-od, yet if, out of so many 
and so various sayings, a question can arise as to the relative 

1 Cf. St. John xx. 30 ; xxi. 24. 

* E. q. Acts xx. 35 ; not elsewhere found. 



32 



SAYINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS. 



[DISC. I.] 



meaning and importance of any of them, these, it can hardly 
be doubted, are they by which the darker, earlier, prospective 
sayings are to be interpreted. 

And therefore they are of high and sacred value, and require 
to be most carefully and reverently considered. They contain 
within them the germ of every thing most precious to Christ- 
ians in knowledge, privilege, and comfort. Unless men can 
trace a personal claim to have a share in them, and the insti- 
tutions founded on them, it is difficult to say where they can 
look for well-founded peace or hope. Feeling themselves, as 
baptized and dutiful Churchmen may, rightful inheritors of 
them by a title of clear and unquestionable descent, they may 
look on them as their written charter of privilege, the docu- 
mentary evidence of their Christian citizenship, with all its 
blessings of present acceptance, strength, and peace, and future 
welcome, recognition, and eternal joy. 



DISCOURSE II. 



Fear not, little flock ; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the 
kingdom. — S. Luke, xii. 32. 

The first of the sayings of the great forty days, is that 
which asserts the royalty of our blessed Lord Himself. It is 
the first in place, for it occurs as the first in the first of the 
Evangelists, and it is the first also in its own proper order and 
meaning ; for from the Royalty of Christ the existence of the 
Church, with all her powers, privileges, and hopes, is directly 
derived. As a King, He founded his kingdom ; as a King, 
He commissioned His ministers ; as a King, He laid out the 
limits and constitution of His kingdom, according to His own 
will. 

Let it, then, be first observed, that this royalty is first fully 
given in the Resurrection : " And J esus came and spake unto 
them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in 
earth." 1 

Was He not, then, it may be asked, a king before ? Was 
He not a king, when He said to Pilate, " Thou sayest that I 
am a king ?" 2 Was He not a king who was one with the 
Father from the beginning, who made all things, so that 
" without him was not any thing made that was made V' 3 



1 St. Matt, xxviii. 13, 2 St. John xviii. 37. 3 St. John i. 3. 



34 



ROYALTY OF CHRIST. 



[DISC. 



Doubtless he was in these senses a king, as He was the Lord 
God omnipotent, who reigneth from all eternity. But 4 His 
Royalty as Christ, His kingly estate as that sacred Person, 
who being from the beginning in the form of God took upon 
Him the form of a servant, 5 and was made in the likeness of 
man 3 this more peculiar power and dignity of kingship 
(though inchoate from the moment when first the Son of God 
took flesh, and gleaming through the veil of humiliation with 
which His face was covered in His ministry, in many a word 
and deed of authority and power), was only then established, 
when by yielding He had conquered, by dying He had risen, 
by sufferings 6 He had been made perfect. As He had sub- 
mitted to be born in the flesh as a little child, and to pass, as 
an ordinary man, through the gradual stages of growth and 
stature, and even of wisdom and favour with God, so too did 
He bear to attain by degrees to higher eminences of office and 
dignity, even in respect of the sacred unction. The prophetic 
office He had exercised, in great part, while going in and out 
among his disciples in his three years' ministry. His sacred 
Priesthood He had then chiefly exhibited, when He laid down 

4 'Zvvs'Kovti ovv tydvav, oiitfw vbsi to s8o9r] /xot rtaaa f foutfta. ft fxsv 
drto tov ®sov %6yov %sy6fxsvov sxhafioig, oil ibudiq fxoi r t naaa i%ovaia, 
xado xal axovts$ xal sxovtsg vvv S7tLyivu>(Sxovai [is ©e6f, ol 7iC^r\v xara 
tbv trj$ dxovalov vrtotayrjc; tportov dovtevovttg /xoi' ft 8s drto ffjg 
avOgiortlvyf <kvGsu>s hsyopsvov, ovtoi vbsv oti fyw ri Ti^iqv xatdxpito^ 
tyvocf, xata 8s tr\v 7tep$ tbv Ttov tov ©sou doi>y%vtov svuovv ©fos 
ovaa sKafiov tr t v i^ovaiav xata rtdvtw Coats TtgooxvvsLoOao VTi > dyyfXui/ 
sv ovpavcp, xal S7il xr t $ yrj; 8o^d^sa9ai V7tb t<Zv Tts^dt^v rtdi'tuv. 

Etj* tr[V svav9pti>7t<y]Oiv oZv, xal ovx sif tiqv Bsbtr^ta, tavxa vosiv 8sl> — 
S. Basil, adv. Eunom. 

" Constat quod Christus, qui ab aetemo habebat regnum mundi, ut Dei 
Filius, executionem accepit ex resurrectione, quasi dicat, Jam sum in 
possessione. De ista habetur Daniel vii. 26. Judicium sedebit, ut 
auferatur potentia, &c." — Thorn. Aq. in S. Matt, xxviii. 18. 

5 Phil. ii. 6, 7. 

6 Heb. ii. 10 : v. 8. 9. 



II.] 



ROYALTY OF CHRIST. 



35 



His life for the sheep. His eternal Royalty 7 is established at 
the Resurrection. 

This sacred royalty of our blessed Lord, to be thus after- 
wards given, is the continual topic of the ancient prophetic 
Scriptures. There is no other subject which is to be found 
pervading them in nearly the same abundance or variety of 
statement. 

The Psalms of David, for example, are replete with predic- 
tions of the greatness, power, and majesty of the Redeemer's 
kingdom. It is difficult among so many Psalms to cite the 
most striking passages of these prophecies. It may be suffi- 
cient to refer to those Psalms in which the subject is most 
prominently brought forward, and in which the extent, 8 the 
eternal duration, 9 the holiness, 1 the awful power, 2 the merciful 
judgment, 3 the Divinity, 4 the mightiness and glory, 5 the wor- 
ship 6 , the righteousness and awfulness, 7 the eternal Priestli- 
ness, 8 and the wisdom and goodness, 9 of the kingdom, and of 
the Messiah as the predicted King, are celebrated in the 
loftiest and most varied strains. 

In like manner the book of the prophet Isaiah is replete 
with predictions of the kingdom of Christ. Some of these 
passages are short and striking, and in their obvious meaning 
speak expressly to the point. Such is that great prophecy of 
the ninth chapter : " For unto us a child is born, unto us a 
son is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulder : 
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The 
mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be 
no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to 

7 "In hac tertia dignitate Matthseus librum finit, cum, ut annotavimus, 
primum de prophetico, deinde de sacerdotali ejus officio egisset. — Grotius 
in Matt, xxviii. 18. 

8 Ps. ii. 9 Ps. xxi. xlv. cxlv. 1 Ps. xlv. 

2 Ps. xlvii. 3 Ps. Ixxii. cxlv. 4 Ps. lxxxix. 

6 Ps. xciii. 6 Ps- xcvi. 7 Ps. xcvii. xcix. 

8 Ps. ex. 9 Ps. cxlv. cxlvii. 



36 ROYALTY OF CHRIST. [DISC. 

order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, 
from henceforth even for ever." 10 Such is that verse of the 
24th chapter : " Then the moon shall be confounded, and the 
sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount 
Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously/' 11 
Such is that prophecy of the 32nd chapter : " Behold, a king 
shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judg- 
ment." 1 Such are those of the 52nd and 55th chapters : 
" How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him 
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bring- 
eth good tidings of good, that publishetn salvation; that 
saith unto Zion, Thy Grod reigneth !" " Incline your ear, 
and come unto me ; hear, and your soul shall live ; and I 
will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure 
mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to 
the people, a leader and commander to the people." 3 But 
besides these, and others which might be quoted like them, 
the whole book is full of the same subject in a less difect and 
obvious form. The kingdom is often described, without ex- 
press mention of the king. (Chaps, xi. xii. xxxv. xl. xlix. 
lx. lxi. &c.) The king is typified under the likeness of Eli- 
akim, the son of Hilkiah. (xxii. 20 — 25.) Prophecies 3 
which in their first and directest meaning seem to refer to 
other subjects, yet run up at last to this, the great and 

io Isa. ix. 6, 7. 11 Ibid. xxiv. 23. 

1 Ibid, xxxii. 1. * jbjd. lii. 7 ; lv. 3, 4. 

3 Vitringa in Isaiam, cap. xxii. (Vol. i. p. 659.) 

Prophetia? hujus generis eum in modum accipiendse sunt, ut in magna 
latitudine complectantur oeconomiam status populi Dei post reditum ex 
exilio, qua? perficeretur in ceconomi'ii Ecclesiae N. T, — Non sane hoc sensu 
acsi Messias raox post reditum ex exilio expectandus esset, sed quod Deus 
hoc tempore inciperet sua gratia statum ecclesia? eo modo componere ut 
manifesto pra?pararetur ad oeconomiam spiritualem a Messia instituendam 
— donee tandem illucesceret Tempus Gratia?, quo Filius Dei, abolitis aliis 
omnibus Potestatibus, regimen ecclesia? ipse et solus capesseret, ipse se 
ecclesia? sua? immediate uniret, — ipse agnosceretur esse unicus populi sui 
Rex, Pontifex Unicus, solus Doctor, Legislator, Judex, &c — Vitringa in 
cap. xxviii. 5. 



II.] 



ROYALTY OF CHRIST. 



37 



universal object of all the prophet's inspirations. We should 
not speak beyond the truth if we should say that the kingdom 
of the Messiah is, more or less directly, present in all the 
Evangelical Prophecies with which this wonderful book 
abounds. 

The prophecies of the same kind in the books of Jeremiah 
and Ezekiel are less nnmerous, but equally forcible. " In 
those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of right- 
eousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judg- 
ment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall 
Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely : and this 
is the name wherewith he shall be called, The Lord our 
Righteousness. For thus saith the Lord, David shall never 
want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel." 4 
u And I will make them one nation in the land upon the 
mountains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them all. 
. . . And David my servant shall be king over them ; and 
they shall all have one shepherd : they shall also walk in my 
judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them/' 3 

The prophet Daniel 6 saw in vision the actual investiture of 
the kingdom. " I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one 
like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and 
came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near 
before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, 
and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should 
serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be 
destroyed/' 7 

Great are also the prophecies of Micah to the same effect : 
"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little 
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come 
forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth 

4 Jer. xxxiii. 15 — 17 ; xxiii. 5* 

5 Ezek. xxxvii. 22, 24. 6 Dan. vii. 13, 14. 
' Vide Appendix, passage from St. Cyprian. 

4 



38 



ROYALTY OF CHRIST. 



[DISC. 



have been from of old, from everlasting. . . . And he shall 
stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the 
name of the Lord his God ; and they shall abide : for now 
shall he be great unto the ends of the earth." 3 And of 
Zechariah : " Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Be- 
hold the man whose name is the Branch ; and he shall grow 
up out of his place, and he shall build the Temple of the 
Lord. Even he shall build the Temple of the Lord : and he 
shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne ; 
and he shall be a priest upon his throne : and the counsel of 
peace shall be between them both." 9 

Besides written predictions, we also know that the throne 
of David himself, and its assured succession for ever in his 
house, are to be understood as a type and assurance of the 
establishment of the throne of his Divine Son. As such it is 
often spoken of by the Prophets. These are u the sure 1 mer- 
cies" of David, the assured and certain fulfilment, by the 
Resurrection from the dead, of the promise of an eternal 
kingdom in his house to be established in his Son. 

Such, in general, were the prophecies of the Old Testament 
respecting the kingdom of the Messias, to be founded at some 
future time upon the earth. Indeed, so fully do the ancient 
Scriptures speak of the kingdom of Christ, its extent, power, 
and eternity, that they say but little in comparison of the 
humiliation and suffering by which it was to be preceded. 
Yet there are not wanting passages in which the two subjects 
are closely connected, according to those words of our Lord 
Himself on the road to Emmaus : " fools, and slow of heart 
to believe all that the prophets have spoken ! ought not Christ 
to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory ?" 2 
Witness the sayings of that great Evangelical Prophecy, the 
second Psalm : " The kings of the earth stood up, and their 
rulers took counsel together against the Lord, and against his 

8 Micah v. 2, 4. 9 Zech. vi. 12, 13. 

1 Acts xiii. 44. Isa. Iv. 3. 2 St, Luke xxiv. 25, 26. 



II.] 



ROYALTY OF CHRIST. 



39 



anointed:" 3 for in truth, against the anointed Jesus both 
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people 
of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatsoever the hand 
and counsel of God determined before to be done. And yet 
did God, who sitteth in heaven, laugh their designs to scorn, 
and set His king, that day begotten in the Resurrection, upon 
His holy hill of Sion. 4 In like manner, the two passages of 
all the Old Testament which speak most fully of the humilia- 
tion of Christ (the 22nd Psalm and the 53rd chap, of Isaiah,) 
both end with the announcement of His glory. " Therefore 
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide 
the spoil with the strong." 5 " The kingdom is the Lord's, 
and he is the governor among the people." 6 

In like manner, when the Baptist came to be the forerun- 
ner of Christ, the announcement which he made was of the 
immediate approach of a kingdom : " Repent ye, for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand ;" 7 and when he made his 
public recognition of Christ, he said, " This is he of whom I 
spake ;" 8 the king, that is, whose kingdom it had been the 
great object of his commission to announce and prepare. 
So, too, when the Lord Himself came, He also preached the 
approach of the kingdom. " The kingdom of heaven" also 
was that which He unfolded and explained in all His para- 
bles ) and to the kingdom of heaven His disciples were 
taught to look continually forward in their prayers and anti- 
cipations, even though they mistook the nature of it. His 
kingdom was not yet 9 of this world, when just before His 

3 Ps. ii. Cf. Acts iv. 28. 4 Acts xiii. 33. 

6 Isa. liii. 12. 6 p s . xx ii. 2 8. 

7 St. Matt. iii. 2. s St. John, i. 15. 

9 I have followed Bp. Pearson in using this expression, " was not yet of 
this world," as though after the Eesurrection the kingdom became of this 
world. I confess, however, that the repeated use of the words sx ?ov 
xoGfiov in the 17th chapter of St. John, verses 14—16, inclines me to 
believe that our Lord means rather to say, that His kingdom is not derived 
from the world, nor of the world's kind, but opposite and antagonist to 
the world. 



40 



ROYALTY OP CHRIST. 



[DISC. 



final submission He replied to Pilate/ asking Him if He 
were a king. 

And then/ having thus lived the due time upon the earth, 
and exhibited in His life many signs of His divine nature 
and majesty, He submitted at length to the painful and ig- 
nominious death upon the cross. Therein He yielded once 
to the power of Satan, and received upon Himself the pun- 
ishment due to our sins. But having thus submitted, He 
was, after three days, greatly exalted. After three days 
sojourn in the heart of the earth, He was raised from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, and thereby declared to be the 
Son of God with power. Then His long-predicted kingdom 
was established. It was founded in Zion. It was the due 
succession and antitype of the throne of David. The Priest 
was upon His throne. All power was given unto Him in 
heaven and in earth. The kingdom was set up in right- 
eousness, power, and majesty. It began to go forth from 

1 St. John xviii. 35. 

2 The third office belonging to the Messias was the regal, as appeareth 
by the most ancient tradition of the Jews, and by the express predictions 
of the Prophets. The solemn inauguration into this office was at His 
ascension into Heaven, and His session at the right hand of God : not but 
that He was by right a king before, but the full and public execution was 
deferred till then, when God raised Him from the dead, and set Him at 
His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and 
power, and might, and dominion. Bp. Pearson on the Creed, Art. ii. 

This dominion, thus given unto Christ in His human nature, was a direct 
and plenary power over all things ; but this was not actually given Him 
at once, but part while He lived on earth, part after His death and resur- 
rection. For to this end Christ both died, rose, and revived, that He might 
be Lord both of the dead and living. After His resurrection He said to 
His disciples, " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth," &c. — 
Ibid. p. 241. 

Christ was bom king of the Jews ; and the conjunction of His human 
nature with His divine in the union of His person, was a sufficient unction 
to the regal office ; yet as the Son of Man he exercised no such dominion, 
professing that His kingdom wasnot of this world; but after that He rose 
from the dead, then as it were in Hebron with His own tribe, He tells the 
Apostles, 11 All power is given unto Him ;" and by virtue thereof gives them 
injunctions. — Ibid. Art. vi. p. 422. 



II.] 



ROYALTY OF CHRIST. 



41 



Zion, to the farthest parts of the earth ; and it was estab- 
lished to endure unto the end of the world. 

And thus, in the later Scriptures, we find the Apostles, in 
terms hardly less glowing and forcible than those of the 
ancient prophets, celebrating the kingdom of the Messias, 
now established for ever in heaven and earth. As before, too, 
the glory of the kingdom is represented as following immedi- 
ately after, and as won by the humiliation and suffering of 
the Lord. Such is that great passage of the Epistle to the 
Philippians : " And being found in fashion as a man, he 
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross. Wherefore G-od also hath highly exalted 
him, and given him a name which is above every name : that 
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in 
heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth; 
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of Grod the Father." 3 Such are those 
sayings of St. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles, and in his 
first Epistle : " The G-od of our fathers raised up Jesus, 
whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted 
with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give 
repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." 4 " Therefore 
let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that Grod hath 
made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and 
Christ." 5 " Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right 
hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made 
subject unto him." 6 So St. Paul writes to the Hebrews : 
" Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, 
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the 
throne of God." 7 To the Ephesians : " His mighty power, 
which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the 
dead, and set him far above all principality, and power, and 



3 Phil. ii. 8—11. 
6 Ibid. ii. 36. 



4 Acts v. 30, 31. 
6 1 Pet. iii. 22. 



7 Heb. xii. 2. 
4* 



12 



ROYALTY OP CHRIST. 



[DISC. 



might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only 
in this world, but also in that which is to come/' 8 And to 
Timothy : " Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only poten- 
tate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords ) who only hath 
immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach 
unto ; whom no man hath seen, or can see : to whom be honour 
and power everlasting. Amen." 9 And such is that glorious 
ascription of royal praise and worship in the Book of the 
Revelation of St. John. " I beheld, and I heard the voice of 
many angels "round about the throne, and the beasts, and the 
elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten 
thousand, and thousands of thousands ; saying, with a loud 
voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, 
and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, 
and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and 
on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the 
sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and 
honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth on 
the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen/' 1 
There is one 3 passage, indeed, in the first Epistle to the 
Corinthians, which seems to speak of the kingdom of Christ 
coming to an end. " Then cometh the end, when he shall 

8 Eph. i. 20, 21. 9 1 Tim. vi. 14—16. 1 Rev. v. 11—13. 

2 The regal power of Christ, as a branch of the Mediatorship, is to con- 
tinue till all those enemies be subdued. When all the enemies of Christ 
shall be subdued, when all the chosen of God shall be actually brought 
into His kingdom, when those which refused Him to rule over them shall 
be slain, that is, when the whole office of the Mediator shall be completed 
and fulfilled, then every branch of the execution shall cease. Now, though 
the Mediatorship of Christ be then resigned, because the end thereof will 
then be performed ; though the regal office, as part of that Mediatorship, 
be also resigned with the whole, yet he must not think that Christ shall 
cease to be a king, or lose any of the power and honour which before He 
had. The dominion which He hath was given Him as a reward for what 
He suffered ; and certainly the reward shall not cease when the work is 
done. He hath promised to make us kings and priests, which honour we 



II] 



ROYALTY OF CHRIST. 



48 



have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father : 
when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and 
power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under 
his feet. . . . And when all things shall be subdued unto him, 
then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put 
all things under him, that God may be all in all." This pas- 
sage, however, is to be interpreted, not of the eternal kingdom 
of the Messiah, of which according to ancient prophecy, and 
the words of the angel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, u there 
shall be no end," but of that present condition or estate of the 
Church, which is economical, as aiming at a particular end; 
militant, as being occupied in battling against the spirits of 
evil ; and protective of His people, still exposed to risk and 
danger of loss, and still needing the ever-present help of grace 
to make good their inheritance. When these objects are 
attained, — the enemies subdued under Christ's footstool ) His 
own finally and for ever rescued ; Death, the last enemy, de- 
stroyed, — thus much of the Royalty, the conquering and terri- 
ble Royalty, shall cease, and God be owned to be the Eternal 
King, the acknowledged Lord, the source and aim of all in 
all. " For his kingdom lasteth, and groweth not faint until 
he hath accomplished all things, and when he hath accom- 
plished all things, then it lasteth much more : for of his 
kingdom there is no end." In that eternal kingdom, the due 

expect in heaven, believing we shall reign with Him for ever, and there- 
fore for ever must believe Him king. — Bp. Pearson on the Creed, Art. vi. 
p. 428 ; Art. ii. p. 242. Vide the notes on these passages. 

Mrj tolvvv, tyqoiv, dxov&af bit rtaoav a^xrp, xal l%ov6iav xatagyrjtiei, 
fyofirjdifi bit tttfoi'jjffEt., xal ov fxyj 7toiyj6£L tavta. rtoirjosi yag riavta, 
$a<5Ck£vu>v xal §lolxu>v tbv rtohsfiovi fcof ov v7totd%<Y] rtdvtag* 'Oboes' 
bti to, axgif, ov 7iep$ avalgecw tov, fisra tavta, xsitat' aXha 6V r t v 
sl^-qtai aittav. xpatsl yag, tyrjvlv, avtov rj fiaockela, xai ovx a^ovsl su>£ 
ov Ttavta xato^dizw psd' o Sh xatog9<x>G£i f rio^c? /xa7^ov' trje; yap 
fiaGitelaf avtov ovx let at ii%o$. — Theophylact. Comm. in 1 Ep. ad Cor. 
cap. xv. 5 v. S. Chrysost. in loco. 



44 



DELEGATION OF THE CHURCH. [DISC. 



and covenanted reward for what He suffered, we believe that 
we too shall reign with Him, being joint heirs in Him of 
His everlasting inheritance, Kings and Priests in Him. 

Of this royal power, thus given at the Resurrection from 
the dead, our Lord makes a twofold division. " All power is 
given unto me, both in heaven and earth." Of these, the 
heavenly kingdom He exerciseth Himself with undelegated 
sovereignty, sitting at His Father's right hand, waiting till all 
enemies shall be subdued under his feet. Thither he went 
up in His glorified body at the Ascension ; there He was seen 
of St. Stephen and St. Paul ; thence He shall return, in like 
manner as He was seen to go up, at the Judgment ; there He 
reigneth as king, and offereth for ever His Church's prayers, 
and the eternal oblation of His own precious sacrifice as 
Priest. 

The earthly kingdom, meanwhile, He delegated to His 
Apostles in that second saying of these great days : " G-o ye, 
therefore." " As my Father hath sent me, even so send I 
you." 3 " Even so !" with no visible or declared inferiority of 
power, commission, or authority; "send I you," 4 you all, you 
together, not thee, and thee, and thee singly, but you. " Even 
so send I you," to occupy My place, to stand as My vice- 
gerents, to speak in My name, to do upon earth that in My 
behalf which I will assuredly ratify in heaven. 5 

But are we then, indeed, to speak as if to weak, fallible, 
and passionate men (even united in one body, and acting with 
joint authority and wisdom,) were committed powers not less on 
earth than were given by Grod to His holy Son ? May we 

tovg fjjf oixovixiviqZ xad^yrj-ta^ ts xai §i§aaxa'kov$) xai twv dsiiov avtov 
fivatriplcop oixov6/j.ov$ — S. Cyril. Alex, in S. Joan. (ed. Auber, iv. 1094.) 

4 S. Clem. Eom. ad Cor. xlii. 

5 Glorificatus Dominus resurgendo, commendat ecclesiam ; glorificandus 
ascendendo, commendat ecclesiam ; Spiritum Sanctum mittens de coelis 
commendat ecclesiam. — S. August. Serm. cclxv- In die Ascens. Dom. 



II.] PERPETUAL PRESENCE OE CHRIST. 45 

not fear lest, while we thus magnify the position and authority 
of the Church of G-od, we may unawares be putting her into 
her Maker's place, and usurping for her prerogatives and powers 
which belong only to Grod ? 

Our Lord at the very same time that He uttered these 
sacred words, conveying so great and wonderful powers, added 
the secret of their greatness : " And, behold, I am with you/' 
It was to be no sanctity or separate authority of their own 
which they were to exercise. It was not that they were to be 
the delegates of an absent, but the visible representatives of an 
invisibly present Lord. He was not to go away altogether, 
though He left them in the flesh; but He was to be Himself 
the present unseen King, even in the long and toilsome days 
of sorrow and fasting, when the Bridegroom should seem to 
be taken away from them, and the Church should wait in 
patience and earnest desire for His reappearing. 

And 6 lest, when the inspired Apostles died, their imperfect 
and uninspired successors should, in the midst of the strife of 
worldly tongues, and the abundance of sin, be tempted to 
doubt whether the mysterious delegation, with all its sacred 
powers, were continued to them, the Lord goes on to add, 
" And, behold I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the world." The Apostles, as we know, all soon died ; the 
promise conveyed in these words could not therefore possibly 
be limited to themselves. They were not to remain on earth 
till the end of the world. Therefore these words belong to 
the Apostles as to a perpetual corporation, to themselves and 

6 Nam illis loquebatur, et nos significabat, cum diceret, Ecce ego vobis- 
cum sum, omnibus diebus, usque ad consummationem sseculi. Numquid 
illi hie futuri erant usque in consummationem sseculi ? Item dicit, Non 
pro bis rogo tantum, sed pro his qui credituri sunt per verbum illorum in 
Me— S. August. Enarr. in Ps. xlvii. 

ov pet' ixdvav 8s /xovov tirttv ItieoOat, &h%a xai fxsta rtuvtav ?W fxsTf' 
fxslvov$ rttGtBvovtcov' ov <ya£ 8yj bus tr^ ovvts'keiaf tov al<Zvof ol owd- 
olo'koi fisveiv sfjiBTJkoV a%% wj 1 ei>i a^fxatt Siateyatai to^ 7ti6tolc;. — 
S. Chrysost. Horn. xc. in Matt. 



46 THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 

their successors : to themselves in the first place, then to all 
whom they " added to the Church ;" 7 to Titus and Timothy, 
to Epaphroditus, Clemens, Hermas, Polycarp, Irenaeus; to 
those whom they left behind them in possession of the Christ- 
ian promises and hopes, to the end of the world. Such a 
succession of faith and blessing our Lord Himself had ac- 
knowledged in the prayer of the seventeenth of St. John, 3 
u Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which 
shall believe on me through their word and St. Peter, in 
the Acts, speaks of the promise also as inherited by others 
after the Apostles : " For the promise is unto you and to your 
children, and to all that are afar off/' 9 

The second and third Sayings, then, of the great forty 
days, are of necessity to be regarded in connexion with each 
other. The Apostolic company was no otherwise delegated to 
occupy the place of their Lord, than inasmuch as He was 
to be ever present with them : the Lord was to be no other- 
wise ordinarily present upon the earth than as present in His 
body, that is, the Church. 

The predictions of these great doctrines contained in the 
ancient Scriptures are by no means so numerous or direct as 
those which prophesy the royalty of our Lord Himself. Nor 
is this surprising. The Prophets are rather occupied with the 
great vision of the Kingdom, of its might, majesty, and eter- 
nity, than with delivering the stages of its progress, or the de- 
tails of its administration. In the same manner, our Lord's 
life, His humiliation, death, and ascension, are rare topics of 
prophecy, in comparison of His greatness and supreme ma- 
jesty. 

Still there are many passages of the Old Testament which 
bear unquestionable reference to these great Sayings. 

Such are those repeated prophecies of the new temple of 
G od, which was to take the place of the J ewish temple, the 

Acts ii. 47. 8 St. John xvii. 20. 9 Acts ii. 39. 



II.] 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 



47 



corner-stone of which, rejected of the Jewish builders, and a 
stone of stumbling, and rock of offence to the Jewish nation, 
was to be set in Zion. These 1 prophecies are numerous ; and 
among them the following is made the more remarkable, by 
being spoken in the same words by the Prophets Isaiah and 
Micah : " And it shall come to pass in the last days that the 
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top 
of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and 
all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and 
say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 
to the house of the G-od of Jacob; and he will teach us of 
his ways, and we will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall 
go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." 3 
For the Lord himself hath identified the new temple with His 
body : " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it 
again : but he spake of the temple of his body." 3 

These passages, again, show that the J ewish temple itself is 
to be regarded as a type and significant likeness of the Christ- 
ian Church of Grod. But of that temple it was the most signal 
characteristic, that the Most High, u who dwelleth not in 
temples made with hands," abode in it, in the glory of the Shec- 
hinah. The Omnipresent G-od, incomprehensible by place, yet 
condescended to " pitch his tent" among men, and exhibit a 
local presence in the midst of His chosen people. The second 
temple, the emblem of the lower state to which long continued 
sin had reduced the people, lost this precious Presence. 
During its continuance, the Jewish Church was in the position 
of a sinner, not yet wholly cast out of the presence of God, 
not yet wholly lost, but living on with reduced privileges, 
and more stinted blessings ; — capable indeed of restoration 
and full recovery, but for the present, suffering for former 
sin, in diminished comfort and help. To this temple, the 

1 Cf. Ps. cxviii. 22. St. Matt. xxi. 42. Acts iv. 11. Eom. ix. 23. Eph. 
ii. 20. 1 Pet. ii. 6—8. 

2 Isa. ii. 2—5. Micah iv. 1—3. 3 St. John ii. 19. 



48 THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 



Lord Himself came, mating 4 its glory greater than that of 
the former one. And then, when the Jews had destroyed, as 
they supposed, that which was the true temple, that which the 
earlier temples of wood and stone had only typified and em- 
blemed, namely, His body, He built it again, in the Resur- 
rection from the dead, a glorious and immortal temple of 
which He was Himself the Shechinah, Himself the corner- 
stone, Himself the G-od of worship, Himself the sacrifice, 
Himself the glory, Himself, invisibly but most truly, possibly 
more 5 truly even than when visibly, the present source and 
foundation of all that could be good or holy in it. Of this 
new and diviner temple, Apostles and Prophets 6 are stones 
of the foundation, and every faithful baptized man a lively 
stone. Christ's preachers edify, the Holy Grhost binds together, 
the separate stones are instinct with spiritual life, and all the 
building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple 
in the Lord. 

With this subject those passages also are connected, which 
(alluding to the Presence of God in the Jewish temple) 
promise another Temple, Tent, or Tabernacle of Grod to be 
set up on the earth, as a defence and refuge for His people. 
Such are those sayings in the Psalms : " In the time of my 
trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion \ in the secret of his 
tabernacle shall he hide me." " Thou shalt hide them in the 
secret of thy presence from the pride of nian." " Thou art 
my hiding-place/ 1 7 

There are also passages, which, not making this direct 
reference to the temple, speak of Grod dwelling in the chosen 

4 Hag. ii. 3—9. 

5 Nec a Patre descendendo abfuerat, nec a discipulis ascendendo dis- 
cesserat. Tunc igitur, dilectissimi, Films hominis, Dei Films, excellentius 
sacratitisque innotuit, cum in paternse majestatis gloriam se recepit : et 
inefiabili modo coepit esse divinitate prassentior, qui factus est humanitate 
longinquior.— S. Leo, Serm. de Ascens. Dom. ii. 

6 Eph. ii. 20. 1 Pet. ii. 5: 

7 Ps. xxvii. 5 ; xxxi. 20 ; xxxii. 7. 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 



49 



nation of the Jews in a manner which remarkably illustrates 
the doctrine of which we are treating. In the 29th chapter 
of Exodus, in which the ceremonies of consecrating the Priests, 
and the order of the continual burnt-offeriAg are delivered, we 
read, " And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and 
will be their God : and they shall know that I am the Lord 
their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, 
that I may dwell among them : I am the Lord their God." 8 
This passage, compared with Exod. xxv. 8, and Levit. xxvi. 
12, might seem to have exclusive reference to the presence of 
G-od in His temple. But when we remember how the Pro- 
phet Haggai speaks (and that at the very time when the 
absence of the visible glory made the temple to be c in the 
eyes' of the people 1 as nothing' in comparison of the house 
which they remembered in her first glory.) " Yet now be 
strong, Zerubbabel, saith the Lord ; and be strong, O 
J oshua, son of Josedech, the high priest ; and be strong, all 
ye people of the land : for I am with you, saith the Lord of 
Hosts : according to the word that I covenanted with you 
when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among 
you : fear ye not f Q we cannot doubt that besides the visible 
presence of the Divine Shechinah, the Holy Spirit of God did 
really dwell in the people of the Jews, so as not to be wholly 
lost even in the darker times of the second temple. This is 
the gift of the Holy Spirit of which the Prophet Isaiah speaks 
as belonging to the nation in its wanderings in the wilderness : 
" In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his 
presence saved them : in his love and in his pity he redeemed 
them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of 
old. But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit : therefore 
he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. 
Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, 
saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea, with 



8 Exod. xxix. 45, 46. I 9 Hag. ii. 4, 5. 

5 



50 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 



the shepherd of his flock ? Where is he that puts his Holy- 
Spirit within him V' 1 

And this gift, like all other things in the history of that 
typical nation, prefigured the times of the Church, and the 
precious gift of the Divine indwelling presence. The Prophet 
Zechariah thus speaks expressly of it : " Sing and rejoice, O 
daughter of Zion : for, lo ! I come, and I will dwell in the 
midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be 
joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people : and 
I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that 
the Lord of Hosts hath sent me unto thee." 3 And David in 
still more precise terms, attaches this peculiar blessing of the 
Divine Presence, exactly as it is afterwards done by the Lord 
Himself and His Apostles, to the departure of Christ, making 
it dependent on the Ascension : " Thou hast ascended on high, 
thou hast led captivity captive : thou hast received gifts for 
men ; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might 
dwell among them." 3 

Again, among the many predictions of the kingdom, par- 
ticularly those of the Prophet Isaiah, there are many expres- 
sions which, read by the light of the fulfilment in the Gospel, 
declare the sacred but invisible presence of Christ with His 
Church. Such is that prophecy of the 24th chapter, " Then 
the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when 
the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jeru- 
salem, and before his ancients gloriously on which passage 
the best modern Commentator on Isaiah writes thus : " Post- 
quam enim Regnum Christi Jesu ab ipso fundatum esset inter 
adversarios ejus 4 et post ipsum in coelos evectum, sedem 
capessivit montem Tsionis et Hierosolymam, sub Regimine 
Apostolorum, Doctorumque et Reetorum, Ecclesias, qui, ipsis 
Apostolis non exceptis, Ttpetifivtsgoi, Seniores dicebantur 5 a 

» Is. lxiii. 9—11 ; lix. 21. 2 Zech. ii. 10, 11. 

3 Ps. lxviii. 18. 4 ibid. ex. 2. 

5 1 Pet. v. 1. 



IE] 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 



51 



Christo Jesu in consilium suum veluti adsciti, tanquam per 
quos Ecclesiam suam, quae Regnum ejus est, ordinaret et 
gubernaret," 6 &c. Such, again, are the expressions of many 
of the later chapters, as of the 60th : 7 " The sun shall be no 
more thy light by day ; neither for brightness shall the moon 
give light unto thee : but the Lord shall be unto thee an 
everlasting light, and thy G-od thy glory. Thy sun shall no 
more go down ; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself : for 
the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy 
mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all right- 
eous : 8 they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my 
planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified." 9 
So again, in the 54th chapter, 1 " Sing, barren, thou that 
didst not bear, break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou 
that didst not travail with child : for more are the children of 
the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the 
Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch 
forth the curtains of thine habitations : spare not, lengthen 
thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break 
forth on thy right hand, and on thy left ; and thy seed shall 
inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inha- 
bited. Fear not ; for thou shalt not be ashamed : neither be 
thou confounded ; for thou shalt not be put to shame : for 
thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not 
remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For 
thy Maker is thine husband f the Lord of Hosts is his name ; 
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel ; the God of the 
whole earth shall he be called." 

The doctrine thus darkly shadowed in ancient type and 
prophecy was abundantly stated, in anticipation, by our Lord 
in the Gospels. The passages to this effect are too numerous 

6 Vitringa in Isaiam, c. xxiv. (vol. ii. p. 24.) 

7 Compare with the 21st and 22d Revelations. 

8 Cf. 1 St. Pet. ii. 5, 9. 9 Is. lx. 19, 21. 

Is. liv. 1— 5. #*'Cf. col. v. 23— 32. 



52 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 



to be quoted. It will suffice to notice a few of the most pro- 
minent of them. 

First, then, we may observe that the greater part of the 
parables which we have already referred to generally as giving 
descriptions of the kingdom of Heaven, describe it specifically 
as a kingdom whose king is in some manner absent from it. 
This is the case particularly with the parables of the king 
taking account with his servants, 3 the labourers in the vine- 
yard, 4 the householder which planted a vineyard and went into 
a far country, 5 the ten virgins, 6 the man travelling in a far 
country 7 who called his own servants and delivered unto them 
his goods, the lord returning from a wedding, 8 and the para- 
ble of the talents. In these, as in other parables, the king is 
described as already having rightful authority, but as being 
also about to receive a kingdom ; as being absent, but about 
to return ; represented by authorities whom he has left behind 
him, but apt to be forgotten, and his laws neglected in his 
absence. His subjects and servants are described as left for a 
time to enjoy or trade with what is of right His, and are 
taught to watch for his sudden return to take account with 
them, and to punish or reward them according to their faith- 
fulness. 

The following passages are among the most express antici- 
pations of the doctrine of those two great Sayings of the Forty 
Days contained in the Gospels. 

St. Matt. x. 1 — 42. This chapter contains the mission of 
the twelve Apostles during our Lord's life. It is clear, 9 how- 
ever, to any person reading it, that the directions and pre- 
dictions of it are by no means confined to that mission, but 

; s St. Matt, xviii. 4 Ibid. xx. 5 Ibid. xxi. 33. 

6 Ibid. xxv. 1. Ibid. xxv. 14. 8 St. Luke xii. 37. 

9 Tbis commission extended beyond the brief period of its first imper- 
fect exercise, as is apparent from many of the directions then given to them 
by our Lord, directions which would not have any scope or place until the 
great work of redemption should have been accomplished. — Bp. of Exeter's 
Ordination Sermon, 1843, p. lV 



II.] 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 



53 



belong also, and principally, to the days in which the Apostles 
should have their fuller mission after the Lord's ascension. 
In this chapter, then, we read that the substance of the Apos- 
tles' preaching was to be the approach of the kingdom, and 
such other sayings of Christ, as whispered by Him in dark- 
ness in their ears, should by them be preached publicly and 
taught in the light ; that they were to be empowered to per- 
form miracles ; that their authority should be so high, that 
any city refusing their words, refused the words of Christ 
Himself present in them, and so should be in a worse condi- 
tion in the judgment than Sodom and G-omorrah; that they 
should be liable to persecution by the heathen authorities and 
by their own kinsmen, and to the hatred of all mankind ; but 
that the Holy Spirit of God should speak for them in their 
defence, and that salvation was assured to them if they 
endured to the end ; that the Son of Man, absent during the 
main of their preaching, should come before they had gone 
through the cities of Israel. Here then we plainly read the 
anticipation of these great doctrines; the absence of Christ 
visible, the high commission of the Apostles to speak and 
teach in His place, His presence in them, so that neglect of 
them was neglect of Him, and the certainty of His return. 

St. Matt. xi. 11. " Verily I say unto thee, Among them 
that are born of women there hath not risen a greater (prophet, 
St. Luke vii. 28,) than John the Baptist : notwithstanding he 
that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." 1 It 
would seem as if these words bore reference to the greatness 
of the gift which should be shared even by the smallest of 
those admitted into the kingdom of heaven, that is, the in- 

i Modern commentators commonly interpret this passage to signify that 
the least of the Apostles (so Dr. Hammond), or the least minister (so Bp. 
Hall, Grotius, &c), is greater than the Baptist. The principal ancient 
commentators (S. August., S. Chrysost,, Theophylact, &c.) suppose the 
contrast to be between St. John the Baptist and our Lord, who was 
younger in years, (uxpotspos. But see the excellent commentary of Mal- 
donatus on the verse. 

5# 



54 THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 

dwelling Presence of the Holy Ghost, and therein the Com- 
munion of the Holy Son, present at once and absent in the 
Church. 

St. Matt. xvi. 13 — 20. In this passage it is plain that a 
kingdom is foretold, the keys of which 2 being of right Christ's, 
are to be delivered in His absence to the authoritative custody 
of others. 

St. Matt, xviii. 15 — 20. The first four verses of this pas- 
sage contain the same doctrine as the place last quoted, 
namely, that the Church was awhile to be put, in the appa- 
rent absenee of its real king, under the authoritative govern- 
ment of the Apostles. The next two verses anticipate these 
doctrines in a very remarkable way. They teach us that the 
mysterious and invisible Presence of Christ is truly there 
wherever two or three persons have been duly gathered 
into the name of Christ, and that the right of praying, and 
the promise of an answer to prayer follows upon this presence. 
If the preceding four verses, then, are clear, as to the delega- 
tion of the Church to occupy the place of Christ, these are not 
less so as to the continued presence of Him, whose place the 
Church is to occupy. 

St. Matt. xix. 27, 28. The "regeneration" of this passage 3 
no doubt refers to both those events which are called, in 
various parts of the New Testament, by the kindred names of 
H regeneration" and " resurrection the one, the regeneration 
of souls, purchased by the regeneration or resurrection of 
Christ, 4 and begun at the baptism of the three thousand on the 
great Pentecost ; the other, the regeneration of bodies, also won 
at the resurrection, 5 to take effect at the return of the Son of 
Man in judgment. 6 Therefore it declares the delegated royalty 

2 Cf. Isa. xxii. 22. Eev. iii. 7. 

3 Cf. Tit. iii. 5, the only other place where the word HaJKiyytvtaitx 
occurs in the New Testament. 

4 Cf. Acts xiii. 33. s Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 20. 
. 6 Cf. 2 Cor. v. 1—10. 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 



55 



of the Apostles, which in the first stage of the kingdom is to 
be exercised without the visible presence of the True King, 
but afterwards is to be continued in heaven in the actual sight 
of Him who shall reign gloriously among His ancients. 

St. Luke x. 1 — 22. In this chapter our Lord sends out 
His seventy disciples. There are many points in whieh this 
commission is similar to that given to the Twelve in the tenth 
of St. Matthew. It is further observable, that the power to 
tread on serpents and scorpions, and exemption from the 
power of the enemy, is promised to them after their return, 
and therefore piainly belongs to something further than their 
mission by two and two as recorded in the beginning of the 
chapter. 

St. Luke xii. 1 — -12. In this passage, as in St. Matt, x., 
the Lord forewarns His Apostles of coming sufferings, of the 
temptation of denying Him before men (He, no doubt, being 
absent), and the Holy Grhost inspiring them with whatever 
was necessary for their defence. 

St. Luke xii. 32 — 40. Here the Lord expressly promises 
the kingdom to His little flock ; but adds, that they are to 
preserve the attitude of servants waiting for a lord returning 
from a wedding ; for that the Son of Man cometh in an hour 
that they think not. 

In the discourse of the seventeenth of St. Luke, the Lord 
seems to refer to the same subject ; when replying to the 
Pharisees, which demanded when the kingdom of Grod should 
come, He answered and said, " The kingdom of God cometh 
not with observation ; neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or, Lo, 
there ! for behold, the kingdom of Grod is within you." 

St. Luke xxii. 24 — 34. In this signal passage, the Lord, 
at the very time that He is reproving the Apostles for striving 
among themselves which of them should be accounted the 
greatest, adds, " And I appoint unto you a kingdom as my 
Father hath appointed unto me ; that ye may eat and drink 
at my table, in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the 



56 THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 

twelve tribes of Israel." There is hardly any passage in the 
Scriptures, in which the high and glorious estate of the 
Church, the personal feebleness and insufficiency of those who 
are called its pillars, and the true secret of its strength and 
glory, are more strikingly exhibited than in these verses. 

St. John x. 1 — 18. In these words there is a slight em- 
barrassment in the interpretation, owing to the " shepherd" 
in the first verses signifying the Apostle, or Apostolical 
minister of Christ, and in the eleventh verse our Lord Him- 
self. How consistent this apparent obscurity is with the 
great Sayings of the forty days, will become clear when we 
reach a subsequent Discourse. At present it is sufficient to 
observe, that in this passage our Lord speaks of Himself as 
about to lay down His life for the sheep of which He is the 
true Shepherd, and as designing to bring other sheep into His 
one fold ; but whilst He is alone the good Shepherd, and the 
door of the fold, others also are spoken of as being true shep- 
herds, in their degree, of those sheep for whom the good 
Shepherd has laid down His life, as admitted by the porter, 
and as listened to by the sheep, whom they call by their 
names, and who know their voice. 

In the twelfth chapter of St. J ohn, our Lord, in answer to 
Andrew and Philip, used these words : " The hour is come 
that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I 
say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, it 
abideth alone ) but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit ;" 
which solemn saying signifies, as we well know, that He was 
Himself about to die, but that by dying, and being buried, 
He should give life to many others, as the single corn sown 
produces much fruit in the field. 

As we draw towards the close of the G-ospel of St. John, 
the discourses of our Lord begin to bear more and more de- 
cidedly and constantly upon the subjects of these great Say- 
ings; His own approaching departure, the delegation of the 
Apostles to occupy His place ; and His own mysterious 



II.] THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 



57 



presence with them in all the world. u Jesus knew that his 
hour was come that he should depart out of the world unto 
the Father ; and having loved his own which were in the 
world, he loved them unto the end." 

In the thirteenth chapter He speaks of his own going away, 
and of the disciples being known as His by their love to one 
another, and says solemnly, as often before, that He will still 
be with them. a Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that 
receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me; and he that 
receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me." 

With the fourteenth chapter the same subjects begin to 
occupy the whole discourse. He declares that He is going 
away, but to prepare a place for them * } that He will return 
again, and take them to Himself. In answer to Thomas, He 
says, that He is " the way, the truth, and the life," so that 
none can come to the Father but by Him ; and in answer to 
Philip, that whosoever hath seen Him hath seen the Father. 
And having thus declared his own greatness, His love for 
them, His approaching departure, and His return, He goes 
on to promise the Comforter, (that Holy Ghost whose very 
title, uxkov TtapaxXytov, cf. 1 John iii. 1, reminds us of His 
identity of operation with Himself,) whom they should 
" know, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." He 
then adds, in terms most remarkable as bearing on our pre- 
sent subject, " I will not leave you orphans ; I will come unto 
you : yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but 
ye see me : because I live, ye shall live also. At that day 
ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I 
in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, 
he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me, shall be loved 
of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself 
unto him." Herein He promises to be present with His 
Apostles even in His apparent absence; present invisibly 
indeed to the world, but to themselves so assuredly and un- 
equivocally, that they might be said to see Him ; present, not 



58 THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 

only to their assurance, as if to their sight, but to give them 
life, a life like His own life. At that day, (that is, in that 
great day of the Regeneration, that great day of the Church, 
dawning at the Resurrection, reaching its noon at the Ascen- 
sion, and then shedding perpetual rains of grace, from the 
early rain of the great Pentecost to the latter rain of the latest 
ages of the world,) they should know that His presence with 
themselves was after the manner of His presence and union 
with the Father. On the inquiry of Judas, not Iscariot, as 
to the manner of His manifesting Himself to the Church and 
not to the world, He further declares the indwelling of the 
Father and the Son, by the Holy Grhost, in those who love 
Him, and keep His words ; and speaking as expressly as pos- 
sible of a state of things shortly to exist, but hitherto not 
existing, adds, " These things have I spoken unto you, being 
yet present with you." " And now I have told you before it 
come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe." 

The fifteenth chapter opens with what is, perhaps, the 
clearest exposition of the Church, its condition of union with 
Christ, and strength and faculty of good works depending 
upon that union, which is to be found in Holy Scripture. 
The Lord then proceeds to speak of the Apostles' commission, 
their privilege of prayer, their duty of love, their prospect of 
persecution, and the presence of the Comforter with them, by 
whose inspiration they should offer to the world their testi- 
mony of Himself. 

In the sixteenth chapter He enlarges on these solemn sub- 
jects still more fully. He warns them of their approaching 
sufferings, and adds : " These things have I told you, that 
when the time comes, ye may remember that I told you of 
them. And these things I said not unto you at the begin- 
ning, because I was with you. But now I go away to him 
that sent me." In the seventh verse He says, more mysteri- 
ously and solemnly than before, that the Presence thus often 
promised to them could not take place until He had Himself 



II.] THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 59 

gone away from them ; and after explaining the office of the 
Holy Spirit as the Teacher of. the Chureh, adds of His own 
mysterious Presence : " A little while and ye shall not see 
me ; and again a little while and ye shall see me, because I 
go to the Father." And, " Ye now therefore have sorrow : 
but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and 
your joy no man taketh from you." Then, repeating more 
strongly than before the promise of the privilege of prayer 
which they were to obtain in that day, He adds, speaking 
plainly and in no proverb, "I came forth from the Father, 
and am come into the world : again I leave the world, and go 
unto the Father/' 

In the seventeenth chapter, the holy Lord offers a sacred 
prayer to the Father for those blessings which have been the 
subject of the previous discourse. He speaks of His own 
hour of glorification as come. He speaks of a power given to 
Him over all flesh, whereby He should give life, the life of 
knowing the only true Gcod, and Jesus Christ sent by Him, 
to all whom G-od had given Him. He speaks of Grod's Name 
manifested to those chosen men, for whom He prays, and in 
whom He desires to be glorified. He is Himself no more in 
the world, but they are in the world. He prays for them that 
they may be one ; and He speaks these words in the world, 
that they may have His joy, the joy of His love, help, and 
presence, fulfilled, that is, entirely possessed, in themselves. 
As He is Himself sent by the Father into the world, so has 
He sent them. And then He prays " for them also which 
shall believe on Him through their word f that as is the union 
between the Father and the Son, so may be the unity of the 
Church through all succeeding times. He speaks of their 
unity, as being a sign to the world of His mission. He speaks 
of having given them His glory, with a view to their unity ; 
and prays that they (proceeding thus from glory to glory, 
from the glory of the Church militant to the glory of the 



60 THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 

Church triumphant) may "be with Him where He is, and be- 
hold His glory which the Father has given Him. 

Thus this solemn discourse, the last and longest held by 
our Lord upon the earth, appears to be entirely a sacred antici- 
pation of these two great Sayings of the Forty Days. In it 
our holy Lord repeatedly warns His Apostles of His own 
departure, and of His presence even after His departure : a 
presence so true, that they might be said to see Him ; a 
presence imparting life and glory. The manner of this pre- 
sence should be the coming of the other Comforter ; but this 
could not be until He in the flesh had departed. He speaks 
of His Apostles as sent, even as He was Himself sent by the 
Father, into the world, to be instructed, inspired, comforted 
by the Holy Grhost : to succeed to His own glory, to Himself 
no more in the world, to teach others to believe : to be united 
with each other, and with Himself, even as He is one with 
the Father. 

The great truths, then, which these various sayings of the 
holy Lord, uttered during the time of His ministry, had thus 
foreshown and anticipated, were at last solemnly promulgated, 
and the powers belonging to them imparted, when after the 
Resurrection from the dead, now clothed in His immortal and 
glorious Royalty, He said to the company of the Apostles, 
" As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you ;" and be- 
hold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." 
Herein He gave to the Church of the Apostles the kingdom 
promised in St. Luke xii. 32, xxii. 29 ; gave to it His own 
glory, as declared in St. John xvii. 22, the similar commis- 
sion to that which he Had Himself received of the Father, as 
promised in the eighteenth verse of the same chapter; appointed 
thrones of judgment over the tribes of Israel, according to 
St. Luke xxii. 30. St. Matt. xix. 28 ; left behind Him the 
keys of His kingdom for binding and loosing, according to 
St. Matt. xvi. 16; xviii. 18. Again, herein He authorita- 



II.] 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 



61 



tively declared that presence of Himself by the Holy Ghost, 
never to be withdrawn from the Church, which in St. Matt, 
xviii. 20, He had promised to belong to two or three duly 
gathered in His name ; which He had often declared 8 would 
render the neglect of His teachers, or His poor and afflicted 
people, or His children, the neglect of Himself; which would 
make His people to be fruit-bearing branches in Himself, the 
Vine, 9 and cause the kingdom (the kingdom of His glory, set 
up in the Regeneration 1 ) to be within them, according to St. 
Luke xvii. 2 1 , which would supply them with words for their 
defence against persecuting kings, 2 with all truth, 3 all instruc- 
tion, all memory of Christ's words, all comfort, and all peace. 4 
When we turn to the Apostolical Epistles, in order to learn 
from them in what manner the inspired Apostles, to whom 
these great Sayings were spoken, understood and acted upon 
them, and thence to derive the true inspired commentary 
upon them, we find a certain number of clear, unequivocal 
passages, in which the doctrines of the delegation of the 
Church to occupy the Lord's place upon the earth, and His 
perpetual Presence even during the time of His apparent ab- 
sence, are plainly taught. But more forcible by far than any 
of these passages, is the manner in which these doctrines are 
continually assumed as being the very principles of the con- 
dition of Christ's Church upon the earth; principles not 
needing express statement (because involved in every claim 
she made, and in the very fact of her taking the place she 
took upon the earth), but continually taken for granted, 
alluded to, and argued on ; principles all the more fully tes- 
tified to in these writings by being so rarely stated in an 
express and dogmatic way. This indirectness of statement 

8 St. Matt. x. 40 ; xviii. 5 ; xxv. 40. St. Luke ix. 48 ; x. 16. St. John 
xiii. 20. 

9 St. John xv. 1. 1 St. Matt. xix. 28. 

2 St. Luke xii. 12 ; xxi. 15. St. Matt. x. 19. St. Mark xiii. 11. 
8 St. John xvi. 13. 4 Ibid. xiv. 18, 26, 27 

6 



62 THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 

makes it difficult to exhibit the force of the Apostolic con- 
firmation of these doctrines by means of quotation ; for not 
only are the separate passages, in which the doctrines are 
stated in so many words, rare, and, as it were, casual, but by 
adducing these alone, or chiefly, we are apt to lose sight of 
the much greater mass of indirect and less producible evidence 
which is to be found in the whole structure of these writings, 
and the position of the Church in the world as assumed in 
them. 

The nature of this indirect evidence may be illustrated 
from a hasty survey of one or two Epistles. 

For example, the Epistle to the Romans hardly contains a 
single passage capable of being quoted with much effect in 
this argument. Nevertheless, any person opening that Epistle, 
and attempting to gather from it the state and claims of the 
Church, will readily see how much these doctrines are assumed, 
and made, as it were, the basis of argument throughout it. 

In the opening of that Epistle, St. Paul speaks of himself 
as an Apostle, having received grace and apostleship from 
God, in order to bring all nations to the obedience of the 
faith of Christ, who by the Resurrection has been declared to 
be the Son of God with power. He longs to see them, that 
he may impart to them some spiritual gift ; he is debtor to 
Greeks and to barbarians, to preach to them the Gospel of 
Christ. He warns them of the day of wrath, the revelation 
of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every 
man according to his deeds. He preaches a righteousness, 
promised to Abraham, purchased by Chriz-t, to be given to 
faith ; of which he is an authorized preacher and apostle ; in 
the possession of which righteousness men may exult and be 
hopeful in tribulations, conscious of the Holy Ghost given 
unto them. He argues, that if God gave Christ to die for 
men while ungodly, much more, having received this recon- 
ciliation, they will be saved by His Divine life, begun in the 
Resurrection. He urges with force, that in baptism they 



II.] THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 63 

have all been baptized into His death, 5 and that they are 
now partakers of His life, alive unto God through J esus Christ 
our Lord, 6 and therefore bound to be holy before Him. To 
those who are in this state, " to them which are in Christ 
Jesus/' there is no condemnation. They are taken out of the 
world ; they " are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be 
the Spirit of God dwell in them." " Now if any man have 
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be 
in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life, 
because of righteousness. " This indwelling Spirit (whereby 
Christ also is indwelling) mortifies the deeds of the body, 
gives filial love, and the assurance of sons, hope, patience, and 
the gift of prayer. 

In this passage, which, extending over the first eight chap- 
ters, contains the first and main argument of the Epistle, the 
Church, now deprived of the visible presence of the Lord, is 
represented as waiting for His return ; meanwhile, Apostles 
have the duty and burthen of preaching the faith, and bring- 
ing the nations into it, and of imparting spiritual gifts : per- 
sons admitted into their company by baptism, are admitted 
into a mysterious participation in the death and life of Christ; 
into His death by being buried in the water of baptism, and 
into His life by being raised out of it : they are in Christ, by 
having the gift of the Spirit. 

The same doctrines are taught in the later chapters. The 
members of the Church " being many are one body in Christ, 
and every one members one of another." " Christ has re- 
ceived them to the glory of God." St. Paul is " the minister 
of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of 
God and " Christ hath wrought'' " mighty signs and won- 
ders" by him, " by the power of the Spirit of God, to make 
the Gentiles obedient." 

In the Epistle to the Colossians also, these doctrines are 



Cf. Col. ii. 12, 20. 



6 Cf. Col. iii. 1. St. John v. 26. 



64 THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 

very fully taught, so as to form the entire basis and ground- 
work of the Apostle's argument. 

St. Paul begins by acknowledging the faith of the Colos- 
sians, their love and hope, telling them how he prays for their 
perfection, and continual increase of strength; and thanks 
God for having made them and him " meet to be partakers of 
the inheritance of the saints in light ;" 7 " who hath delivered us 
from the power of darkness, and translated us into the king- 
dom of his dear Son," " who is the head of the body, the 
Church." He tells them how Christ hath reconciled them in 
the body of His flesh through death, and that he himself 
rejoices to suffer, and fill up that which is behind of the afflic- 
tions of Christ in His flesh, for His body's sake, which is the 
Church ; and he professes to preach, and warn, and teach 
every man, in order to present every man perfect in Christ 
Jesus, according to His working, working mightily in him. 

Then, warning them of the dangers of false philosophy, he 
teaches them that in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily (rtav to rt^pco^a tr^ deotqto$ <5iA(iatixu$), and 
that they in like manner are complete (fully filled) in Him 8 
Qcste TtertXwupevoi) ; that in Him they are spiritually circum- 
cised, and by baptism made partakers of His death and resur- 
rection from the dead. Being then dead, he exhorts them 
to emancipate themselves from the thraldom of ordinances; 
and being alive, risen with Christ, their life hid with Christ 
in God, and Christ their life, he urges them to have their 
hearts set and fixed on heaven. He urges them to holiness on 
the ground that Christ is " all and in all," and reminds them 
that they are called to " the peace of God" " in one body." 

Thus, in this Epistle too, we find it very fully taught, that 
as God is in Christ, so Christ, absent as He is in the flesh, is 
in His Church; so that men baptized therein are already ad- 
mitted to share His Divine life. The Apostle speaks of the 
Church as a single body, the inheritance of saints, divinely 

7 Cf. Acts xxvi. 18. s Cf. St. John xvii. 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 



65 



alive with the presence of Christ, and of himself in his zealous 
preaching as working in the power of Christ, and in his suffer- 
ings as bearing part of that which is behind of the sufferings 
of Christ. 

It is not possible that the great doctrines of the sacred 
delegation of the Church, and the Divine invisible presence of 
her Lord, could be more fully or emphatically taught than 
they are by being thus made the basis, groundwork, and sub- 
stance of an entire Epistle. 

But besides this universal prevalence of these doctrines in 
the framework and texture of the Apostolical principles, there 
are also separate passages in which they are strongly and dis- 
tinctly taught. 

Such are those which speak of the Church as the body of 
Christ, and of separate Christians as the members of that body, 
Christ Himself, in His Holy Spirit, being the life, and bond 
of union in them all f the former of which passages is the 
more remarkable, because in it " Christ/' 10 is the name, not of 
the Head of the body only, but of the whole body. 

9 1 Cor. xii. 12—30. Eph. iv. 4—16. 

10 Ergo ipse Dominus Jesus Christus caput et corpus : voluit enim loqui 
in nobis, qui dignatus est mori pro nobis : membra sua nos fecit, — Apos- 
tolus dicit, ut suppleam quag desunt pressurarum Christi, in carne mea. — 
Patitur, inquit, adhuc Christus pressuram, non in carne sua in quab 
ascendit in coelum, sed in carne mea qua? adhuc laborat in terra. Christus, 
inquit, pressuram patitur in carne mea : " Vivo enim non jam ego, vivit 
vera in me Christus." Nisi enim Christus et in membris suis, hoc est, 
fidelibus suis pressuram ipse pateretur, Saulus in terra Christum in coelo 
sedentum non persequeretur. Denique aperte hoc exponens quodam 
loco : Sicut enim corpus unum est, inquit, et membra multa habet, omnia 
autum membra corporis, cum sint multa, unum est corpus ; ita et Christus. 
Non ait, Ita et Christus, et corpus ; sed, Corpus unum multa membra, ita 
et Christus. Totum ergo Christus. Et quia totum Christus, ideo caput 
de coelo, Saule, inquit, Saule, quid me persequeris V Tenete hoc, et fixum 
omnino commendate memories, ut agnoscatis Christum caput et corpus, 
eundemque Christum Verbum Dei unigenitum, gequalem Patri ; et inde 
videatis quanta gratia pertingatis ad Deum, ut ipse voluerit esse nobiscum 
unus, qui est cum Patre unus. — S. Augustin. Enarr. in Psalm, cxlii. (vol. 
iv. p. 1590.) 

6* 



66 THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. [DISC. 

Such again are those passages in which separate Christians 
are spoken of as temples of the Holy Grhost, whilst Christians, 
when together, are said to be the temple of Christ. 1 

The following are single passages of importance to the 
same effect : — 

G-al. iii. In this remarkable chapter St. Paul is occupied 
in proving to the Gralatians that the hope of Christians is all 
derived from the great evangelical promise made to the patri- 
arch Abraham ; and that therefore, as Abraham won the pro- 
mise by faith, so faith is still the condition on which those 
who claim under his promise will be accepted of G-od. This, 
I say, is the main object and drift of the argument of the 
chapter ; but the manner in which the Apostle conducts the 
argument furnishes a remarkable confirmation of the doctrine 
which we are now considering. " Now to Abraham and his 
seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, 
as of many ; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." 
Thus far then we learn that the promise made to Abraham 
was to be inherited by one, and one only, that is Christ. Not 
all Abraham's sons were inheritors. "Think not to say 
within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father p " neither 
because they are seed of Abraham, are they all children;" 3 but 
one, and one only, was designated to be the heir of the pro- 
mise. 

The argument, after some parenthetical matters, thus con- 
tinues at verse 27. u As many of you as have been baptized 
into Christ, have put on Christ : — for ye are all one in Christ 
Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, 
and heirs according to the promise." Christ, then, we are 
taught, comprises His baptized. He inherits as the sole heir 
of the promise; but every baptized person having in his baptism 
" put on Christ," inherits in Christ. As the vine comprises 

1 1 Cor. vi. 19 ; iii. 16. Cf. 2 Cor. vi. 16. Eph. ii. 21, 22. Heb. iii. 16. 
1 St. Pet. ii. 5. 

2 St. Matt. iii. 9. Eom. ix. 7. 



II.] 



THE DELEGATION AND PRESENCE. 



67 



its branches, the body its members, so Christ comprises His 
baptized. Therefore all Christians are in Christ, sacredly 
present in them, though absent in the flesh. Therefore in 
Christ they are all one. Being one in Christ, they are jointly 
the one heir of Abraham; (Gral. iii. 16; 26^*29) jointly, in 
Him, the visible representative of Him; jointly, in Him, they 
are even called by the sacred Name itself, < Christ/ — (1 Cor. 
xii. 12.) 

One other passage may be quoted to the same effect : — 
1 St. Peter, ii. 4 — 10. Here it is plain that Christians alto- 
gether are spoken of as a single body, a temple of Christ, 
built up with separate spiritual stones, but altogether forming 
one Divine edifice, replete with the presence of their Lord, in 
whose acceptableness they may offer acceptable sacrifice, and 
show forth to the world the praises of Him who hath called 
them. 

These passages may be taken as specimens of the teaching 
of the Apostles after the Resurrection, in respect of these two 
great Sayings of the Forty Days. They are not by any means 
all, they can hardly be called more than some of the principal 
places in which the same doctrines occur, either distinctly 
stated, or still more forcibly assumed. But they suffice to 
show that which it is our present purpose to illustrate, namely, 
that throughout the later Scriptures, the doctrines of the 
Lord's absence in the flesh, but presence in the Spirit, and 
the consequent delegation of the Church to be as Himself 
upon the earth, instinct with His life, partaking of His Resur- 
rection, full of His grace, His power in her authority, His 
holiness in her sanctification, His sufferings in her sufferings, 
His word in her teaching, are everywhere supposed and 
taught. If the Lord touched the heart of those whom He 
would save, they were " added to the Church." 3 If the con- 
dition of privilege, or blessing of Christians, were ever spoken 
of, it was as they were " in Christ." It was 4 matter of high 
3 Acts ii. 47. 4 2 Cor. ii. 14. Phil. ii. 1 ; iv. 4. 



68 NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. [DISC. 



rejoicing and triumph to be a in Christ." Christians while 
alive are " in Christ/' 5 " who is their life j" when dead, they 
sleep " in Jesus," and " them which sleep in J esus will God 
bring with him." 6 " In Christ," Christians are already par- 
takers 7 of glory. "In Christ" they are risen from the dead; 8 
they sit with Him in heavenly places, their citizenship 9 is in 
heaven ; they are " come unto Mount Zion, 10 and unto the 
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an 
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and 
church of the first born, which are written in Heaven, and to 
God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made 
perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and 
to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than 
that of Abel." 

There is another Saying of the great Forty Days which 
properly belongs to this part of the subject, as attaching the 
peculiar blessing of the Presence of Christ in His Church to 
His Ascension in the flesh. " Jesus saith unto Mary, Touch 
me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father." 1 

Whatever may be the true explanation to be given of the 
difference made by our Lord between Mary, as stated in this 
passage, and St. Thomas, the Apostles, and the women, 
coming from the sepulchre, — for Mary was forbidden to touch 
the Lord, while the others were either permitted 2 or com- 
manded to do so, — thus much seems clear and undeniable, 
that the touching which Mary desired might not be till the 
Ascension. And thus far interpreters, both ancient and 
modern, would seem to be agreed. Whether the loving Mary 

6 Col. iii. 4. 6 1 Thess. iv. 14. 

7 Cf. Col. i. 28. 2 Cor iii. 8, 18 ; iv. 4. Rom. viii. 30, on which last 
passage St. Chrysostom writes, s8lxcuu6£ §mx -t'jjj tov hovtgov 7t&hiyytv- 
fcaaj — fSolciffs Sta tyjs %a>prto$, Sta fijs vloQsSia.^ — Horn, in Rom. So 
too Theophylact. 

s Col. iii. 1. Eph. ii. 6. 9 Phil iii. 20. 

10 Heb. xii. 22. 1 St. John xx. 17. 

2 St. Matt, xxviii. 9. St. John xx. 27. Cf. 1 St. John i. 1. 



II.] 



NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. 



69 



was more honoured and privileged in the refusal (as would 
seem to be the opinion of S. Augustine), or less so (according 
to the interpretation of S. Cyril 3 of Alexandria), than the 
others in the permission which they received, may perhaps be 
doubtful ; but at least it is clear, that her peculiar touch of 
loving faith could not take place yet; that that particular 
nearness of Christ to His people here represented in the 
phrase of touching Him, needed, for some mysterious reason, 
His Ascension in the flesh to be passed first, before it could 
take place. 

Herein, then, is the doctrine, which, detached 4 from the 
particular case and character of Mary, who herein stood in 
the place of the Church, seems to fill up the great doctrine of 
Christ's Presence in the Church. It could not be until, in 
the flesh, He had ascended to the Father. 

How immediately, upon reading this mysterious saying, we 
are reminded of those dark words uttered in our Lord's last 
discourse ! « Nevertheless, I tell you the truth ; it is expedi- 
ent for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Com- 
forter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send 
him unto you." 5 It is as though He had said to Mary, 
" Touch me not, for I am not yet gone away from you ; but 
when I go away, I will send the Comforter to you ? and then 
thou shalt touch me." ^ 

And such, there is no doubt, is the general import of the 
doctrine conveyed in this passage. That doctrine had been 
already sufficiently indicated both by ancient prophecy and 
evangelical anticipation : by ancient prophecy, when, as already 
quoted, David exclaimed, " Thou art gone up on high, thou 
hast led captivity captive ; thou hast received gifts for men, 

3 S. Cyril. Alex. Comm. in Joan. Evang. lib. xii. (vol. iv. p. 1084. ed. 
Auber.) 

4 Prorsus quod audivit Maria, audiat Ecclesia cujus figuram Maria gere- 
bat. — Tangamus omnes si credamus. — Quando ergo credunt, Maria tangit 
Christum. — S. Aug. Serm. in dieb. Pasch. ccxlv. 

6 St. John xvi. 7. 



70 NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. [DISC. 

yea, even for thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell 
among them;" 6 showing that it was upon the Lord's " going 
up on high/' ascending, that is, into heaven, that the gift of 
the Presence of the Lord God in the Church should depend ; 
bj evangelical anticipation, when the Evangelist, commenting 
upon our Lord's words spoken at the Feast of Tabernacles, 
says, ic This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on 
him should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, 
because that Jesus was not yet glorified." 7 

It is true that this passage, like the one above quoted from 
the sixteenth of St. John, speaks, in terms, of the coming of 
the Holy Ghost, and not of the Presence of the Lord Himself 
as dependent upon the Ascension. 

But the mysterious question which here opens upon us it is 
impossible to fathom ; how, that is, the sacred local Presences, 
if I may venture to speak so, of the Second and Third Persons 
of the ever-blessed Trinity are dependent, and how independent 
of one another. Suffice it to say, that the Sacred Presence of 
Christ is by the Holy Spirit, so that if any man have not the 
Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. 8 Suffice it to say, that 
the Lord Himself, in the great discourse in St. John, exhibits, 
but does not explain, the same difficulty; for He says, not 
only that unless He departs, the Comforter will not come to 
the Church, but also that he will not leave 9 them orphans, but 
will come Himself to them ; and that if any man love Him, 
the Father will love him, and the Father and the Son will 
come to him, and make their abode with him. 

Thus much only (as has been indicated in the earlier part 
of this discourse) the Scriptures seem to unfold respecting 
these two sacred Presences : that the Holy Ghost dwells in 
the hearts of separate baptized Christians, that Christ dwells 
in the community of the Church ; that the bodies of Christians 
are, one by one, temples of the Holy Ghost, but that all 

6 Ps. lxviii. 18. 7 St. John vii. 39. 

8 Rom. viii. 9. 9 St. John xvi. 7 ; xiv. 18. 



II.] NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. 71 

together are the temple of Christ ; that each Christian is a 
separate stone, instinct with the Holy Spirit, but that all 
together make up Christ's temple ; that where several have 
been duly gathered into the Sacred Name (not without the 
water and the renewing of the Holy Ghost), there is Christ in 
the midst of them. 

This doctrine of the necessity of the Ascension of Christ in 
the flesh, as preparatory to the full imparting to mankind of 
the precious blessings of His Presence in the Church, is to be 
found taught, more or less obscurely, in other parts of the 
New Testament. For instance, in the discourse of the six- 
teenth of St. John, and in immediate connection with the 
remarkable saying lately quoted of the necessity of His own 
departure in order that the Holy Spirit might come to the 
Church, He uses these striking and somewhat obscure words 
respecting the office of the Holy Spirit as the Teacher of the 
world. u And when he is come, he will reprove (Jaiyist.) the 
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment : of sin, because 
they believe not in me ; of righteousness, because I go to the 
Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the 
prince of this world is judged/' 1 Here are plainly three 
doctrines, and three reasons for them. The doctrines, if they 
stood alone, would not seem to be difficult to understand ; it 
is the reasons which are attached to them which give them 
their apparent difficulty. 

It seems hardly possible to doubt that the three doctrines, 
Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment, are consecutive, and con- 
nected with one another. However easy or difficult it may 
prove to interpret the reasons of the Holy Ghost, the three 
doctrines themselves, when regarded alone, seem to form so 
plain and intelligible a series as to require to be interpreted 
connectedly. When so regarded, they appear to comprise the 
history of man from his fall to his glory. Sin, then, in this 
view, is human sin, the sin of mankind; righteousness is the 

1 St. John xvi. 8—11. 



72 NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. [DISC, 

state or condition of being restored out of sin, in Christ ; judg- 
ment is the final retribution, in which Grod will reward those 
who, in Christ, obey His law, and punish those who are 
impenitent. This, I say, would seem to be the natural manner, 
according to the usual mode of expression in the Holy Scrip- 
tures, of interpreting the three subjects of Sin, Righteousness, 
and Judgment, when found occurring in series. Nor should 
we doubt that this was the true and almost necessary inter- 
pretation of them, unless some other difficulty arose to stand 
in the way of it. 

In like manner to these three, which are the doctrines of 
the Holy Spirit, seem to answer the three Reasons of the 
Spirit. These three Reasons appear to be, the visible mani- 
festation of Christ in the flesh, the mysterious manifestation 
of Christ to His Church in the Spirit, and His resurrection 
from the dead. " Because they believe not in Christ f this 
can hardly mean any thing else than that the world saw 
Christ, and did not believe him. It does not seem to be any 
wresting of the words to refer them to His coming in the 
flesh. " Because I go to the Father, and ye see me no more f* 
these words, no doubt, refer to His absence, and inasmuch as 
His absence is also His presence, the very token and symbol 
of His mysterious preseuce, then to his mysterious presence 
also. " Because the prince of this world is judged." The 
prince of the world is, no doubt, judged, and cast out in the 
crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. 3 

The Holy Ghost, then, should convince mankind of its sin ; 
and His great and comprehensive proof of sin should be, that 
they believe not in Christ. This is precisely what we are 
taught in other places. " If I had not come and spoken unto 
them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloke for 
their sin." 3 "He that believeth on him is not condemned; 
but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he 
hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of 

2 Cf. St. John xii. 31, 32. 3 Ibid. xv. 22. 



II.] 



NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. 



73 



God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into 
the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds were evil." 4 Thus sin should be the first great 
topic of the Holy Spirit's teaching of the world ; — sin, proved, 
exhibited, and completed in the unbelief with which the Lord 
was received in His first, that is, His earthly and visible, 
manifestation in the flesh amongst men. 

The second topic, if we may so speak, of the Holy Ghost, 
should be Righteousness, human righteousness in Christ, the 
forgiven and beloved condition of man restored in Christ ; and 
this doctrine He should teach on the ground of Christ's having 
gone to the Father, and His disciples seeing Him no more. 
The departure of Christ in the flesh should be the proof and 
evidence of human righteousness. Connecting this saying, 
then, with the immediately preceding words, " that it was 
1 expedient for them that he should go away, for if he went not 
! away, the Comforter would not come to them," we perceive 
how and why His departure in the flesh became the proof and 
! , evidence of human righteousness. On His departure depended 
the coming of the Holy Ghost. On His departure depended 
1 the receiving and the giving of those good gifts of the Holy 
' Ghost to man, whereby the Lord God should dwell in the 
Church. On His departure depended His mysterious pre- 
: sence. 5 And in that mysterious presence by the Holy Ghost, 
[ men placed " in Christ," members of the vital Body, grafts 
of the living Vine, having faith in Him whom they believe 
i though they see Him not, should in Him, who is their right- 
1 eousness, be righteous. 

3 The third topic of the Holy Ghost as Teacher of the world, 
' 4 Cf. St. John iii. 18, 19. 

( 5 Compare particularly the 10th and 16th verses of this chapter, " be- 
S cause I go to the Father and ye see me no more ;" " And ye shall see me, 
] because I go to the Father." Thus because He went to His Father, they 

should both see Him, and not see Him. They should not see Him in the 

flesh, but they should see Him in the Spiri f . 

7 



74 



NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. 



[DISC. 



should be Judgment, Judgment to come; the righteous and 
final doom of the just and unjust; and of this doctrine the 
full and unanswerable proof should be the victory over the 
devil, achieved in the death and resurrection of Christ. For 
the prince of this world was judged or condemned when 
Christ, by raising Himself from the dead, " spoiled princi- 
palities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumph- 
ing over them ;" 6 and this victory over the evil spirits, thus 
won in the resurrection, is the proof which the Holy Ghost 
should give of judgment to come. This is entirely corres- 
pondent with the words of St. Paul at Athens : " He hath 
appointed a day in which he will judge the world in right- 
eousness, by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he 
hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised 
him from the dead." 7 

Exactly accordant with the doctrine of this passage is that 
difficult verse of the Epistle to the Romans, " Who was 
delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justi- 
fication." 8 Here the expressions " was delivered," and " was 
raised again," seem to be intended to comprise all the last 
great acts of the Lord in a short summary, and to be equivalent 
to " His humiliation," and " His exaltation." So that the 
passage altogether may be understood as attributing to the 
humiliation of Christ, the bearing of the sins of men, accord- 
ing to numberless other passages of Holy Writ ; and to the 
exaltation of Christ, that justification or righteousness of man 
which in the former passage was attributed specifically to His 
departure. 

Whereinsoever then man may touch Christ, present myste- 
riously and ineffably by the Spirit in His Church, the Ascen- 
sion needed to be past first before he could touch Him 
really. Is it by faith, 9 the faith which believes without 

6 Col. ii. 15. 7 Acts xvii. 31. 8 Rom. iv. 25. 

9 Quid est ergo, Noli me tangere ? Tactus fidem significat. Tangendo 
enim acceditur ad eum qui tangitur. Mulierem illam videte quae fluxum 



II.] NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. 75 



seeing, which realizes things hoped for, and gives evidence to 
things not seen ? Faith hath indeed a blessed faculty of 
touch, an inward, secret, heart-touch ; as we learn from that 
remarkable narrative, which three of the evangelists record, 
of the miracle performed on the way to the house of Jairus. 10 
The multitude thronged upon Christ, and pressed Him, but 
only one poor sick woman touched Him. The rest seemed 
to touch Him, they surrounded, crowded, held Him ; but 
theirs was outward, bodily, untrue touching. The woman 
only touched in faith, — that touch which would reach to 
heaven ; and so He turned and said, to the surprise of the 
Apostles, who saw the throng and press, " Somebody hath 
touched me I" So the Church, typified in the faithful woman, 
touches her ascended Lord, touches in faith ; believes and 
touches; touches and receives the blessing of the Divine 
touch, the cleansing, the restoration, the life, the making 
whole of whatever disease she laboured 1 with. 

Is it by love ? 3 Mary Magdalene loved much, and she 
might not touch Him unascended. St. Thomas believed not, 
and he, for his own conviction, and that of mankind, was bid 

sanguinus patiebatur. Dixit in corde suo, Sanabor si tetigero fimbriam 
vestimenti ejus : accessit, et tetigit, sanata est. Quid est, accessit et tetigit ? 
Propinquavit et credidit. — S. August. Serm. ccxliv. (vol. v. p. 1018.) 

Fide tangimus Christum : et melius est manu non tangere, et fide tan- 
gere, quam manu palpare, et fide non tangere. Non magnum fuit manu 
Christum tangere. Judasi tetigerunt quando comprehenderunt, tetigerunt 
quando ligaverunt, tetigerunt quando suspenderunt : tetigerunt, et male 
tangendo, quod tetigerunt perdiderunt. Tangendo fide, Ecclesia 
Catholica, fides te salvam fecit. Tu tantum fide tange, id est, fideliter 
accede, et firmiter crede. Si Christum tantummodo hominem putaveris 
in terra, tetigisti. Si Christum Deum credideris a?qualem Patri, tunc 
tetigisti quando ascendit ad Patrem. — S. August. Serm. ccxlviii. In dieb. 
Pasch. (vol. v. p. 1023.) S. Leo, Serm- de Asc Dom. ii. (p. 295, vol. i.) 

10 St. Luke viii. 43. St. Matt, ix. 20. St. Mark v. 30. 

1 St. Luke vii. 47. 

2 Post Resurrectionem, et devictas gloriam mortis, — fideli foeminas, ex 
dilectione. non ex curiositate, nec ex incredulitate Thomas tangere eum 
aggressas, Ne, inquit, contigeris Me, &c. — Tertull. adv. Praxeam, p. 515. 



76 



NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. 



[DISC. 



to reach hither his finger and behold his Lord's hands, and to 
reach hither his hand, and thrust it into His side : 3 the Apos- 
tles, too, who were terrified and affrighted, and thought that 
they had seen a spirit, 4 were desired to handle Him and see, 
for that a spirit hath not flesh and bones as they saw Him 
have : these for various purposes of mercy and compassion, 
might touch, but the touch of a true loving heart might not 
be while he remained in the flesh. And so the Church, the 
Spouse of Christ, loveth Him much. Not having seen, she 
loveth ; and therein being made partaker of the true touch of 
her Divine Lord, rejoiceth with joy unspeakable, and full of 
glory. 

But, as has been observed above, the blessed Presence of 
Christ is not so much an individual as a collective privilege : 
it belongs not so properly to separate Christians as to the 
Church ; it adheres not so peculiarly, if one may so speak, to 
persons as to communities ; it is promised not to single hearts, 
or isolated acts of worship, but to exercises of joint prayer, to 
duly gathered congregations, to offices of communion and 
united devotion. 

And amongst these, most eminently and peculiarly to the 
Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. In that 
Divine feast, the Body and Blood 5 of Christ are verily and 

3 St. John xx. 27. 4 St. Luke xxiv. 39. 

6 Christ Himself touched upon this point (in the sixth chapter, at the 
62d verse) when at Capernaum they stumbled at the speech of eating His 
flesh. " What," saith He, "find you this strange now ? How will you 
find it then, when you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was 
before ? How, then ? and yet, then you must eat, or else there is no 
life in you." So it is a plain item to her, that there may be a sensual 
touching of Him here ; but that is not it : not the right ; it avails little. 
It was her error, this : she was all for the corporeal presence ; for the touch 
with the fingers. So were His disciples, all of them too much addicted to 
it, from which they were now to be weaned ; that if they had before known 
Christ, or touched Him after the flesh, yet now from henceforth they 
were to do so no more, but to learn a new touch, to touch Him, being now 
ascended. Such a touching there is, or else His reason holds not ; and 



II.] NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. 77 

indeed taken and received by the faithful in communion. In 
no other ordinance is the blessed Presence so nigh, so assured, 
and so awful. And it is most remarkable, that among the 
(not many) passages which, in the whole Scriptures, attach 
the mysterious Presence of Christ in His Church to the As- 
cension, there is one, and that among the most signal of them, 
which particularly combines the sacred Presence in the Eucha- 
rist with the same event. For when the disciples, after the 
great Communion discourse recorded in the sixth of St. John, 
said, " This is a hard saying : who can hear it ? When Jesus 
knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said 
unto them, Doth this offend you ? If, then, ye shall see the 
Son of man ascend up where he was before ? It is the spirit 
that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that 
I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." 6 Herein 
He points directly to the Ascension, as " that day" in which 
they should no longer find the saying hard in which they had 
been taught the vital need of eating His flesh, and drinking 
His blood. Thus even the spiritual food of the Body and 
Blood of Christ, the very aliment of the union which is 
betwixt Christ and His Church, waited for the ascension of the 
flesh, before it was fully offered to the sacred touch of the 
faithful in communion. Then, indeed, the Church should 
touch ) touch and be touched ; touch the true body and blood 
of her ascended Lord, to strengthen her indwelling grace, 
to confirm her unity in the Lord, to be assured of grace and 
good-will of G-od, to receive cleansing, holiness, and immor- 
tality both of body and soul. The feast, indeed, was insti- 
tuted, and eleven had partaken of it, while the Sacrifice 7 was in 

best touching Him so, better far than this of hers, she was so eager on. — 
Bishop Andrewes, Serm. xv. of the Kesurrection (apud finem). 

6 St. John vi. 60—63. 

7 trj ns.\H7t-tvi earcspa$ srtotqGS to bii7tvo%i 6 Kuptoj, xai toZ$ (xaOqtais 
s?isy£, Adfiete, fydystt to csCj^id fiov' u>6ts irtsi £%ovola.v t%sc d<j>' twvtov 
deivai tr\v -^vx^ avtov, dfoov oti Ix tots arces^a^si' tavtov, aty' ov 

7* 



78 



NO TOUCHING TILL THE ASCENSION. [DISC. II.] 



the midst; but thenceforth He drank 8 no more of that fruit 
of the vine, till He drank it new with them in His Father's 
kingdom. 

8ia8l6ov toig oixtloc$ fiad^tcus to OiLpa' ovSsi$ yap iaOlsi ft, iav 
rtpotspov esfyay/AEvov sly. — Theopkylact. Comm. in S. Matt. c. xxviii. 
8 St. Matt, xx vi. 39. 



DISCOUESB III. 



TVs o,pa etifiv 6 tLiot 6j oixov6j*o$ xal fypovi/AOs, ov xatatitrfiec 6 xvpio$ 
irti fopartaaj avtov, tov hihovao ep xcupip to GLtofietpiov- 

Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make 
ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due 
season ? — Luke xii. 42. 

The Sayings of our Lord which we have hitherto con- 
sidered, fulfilling many predictions and promises of former 
times, first announced His own eternal Royalty, and then put 
His Church, represented in the Apostles, into His own place 
upon the earth. With her, and in her, He promised to be 
ever present ; and the completion of this holy delegation by 
the fulfilment of His promised presence, was to take place 
when He had ascended in the flesh to heaven. 

Thus far the sacred commission, office, and delegation, seem 
to have been entrusted to the whole Church as one body in 
Christ. All the faithful, baptized into one body, and having 
drunk of one Spirit, constitute that single Vine, that single 
Spouse, that single Church, which altogether, each member 
discharging its own separate duty and ministry, is sent into 
the world by Christ, even as He was sent by the Father. As 
one in Christ, the Church is the heir of Abraham's promise. 
As one in Christ, she is royal, priestly, and prophetic. As 
one, she has the indwelling Presence, the truth, the grace, the 
hope, and the salvation. As one, she is the Temple of the 



80 



THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



living God, 1 from within which sacred enclosure, " what prayer 
or supplication soever be made by any man, or by all his 
people, God will hear in heaven his dwelling place, and for- 
give, and do, and give to every man according to his ways." 2 

But though in the Apostles the whole Church was thus 
completely represented in all its estates and degrees, so that 
the humblest of lay Christians, in his own single person, truly 
and unquestionably inherits many of the great blessings and 
privileges pronounced upon the Apostolic Company alone, we 
nevertheless perceive, on a very cursory survey of the remain- 
ing Sayings of the great Forty Days, that some of them are 
spoken to the Apostles as governors, teachers, pastors of the 
Church, and belong to them and their successors in these 
capacities to the end of the world. 

This distinction is fully recognized in the anticipatory dis- 
courses of Christ which have been already noticed. In the 
twelfth chapter of St. Luke, of which we have already cited 
the passage from ver. 32 to ver. 40, as containing a very sig- 
nal promise of the kingdom to the Church. St. Peter is 
recorded to, have asked, exactly to our present point, " Lord, 
speakest thou this parable unto us, or even unto all ?" 3 Our 
Lord, in His reply, not denying, perhaps affirming, the appli- 
cation of His recently uttered words " unto all," that is, to 
the whole Church, thus confirms the particular application of 
them to the Apostles themselves. " Who then is that faithful 
and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his 
household, to give them their portion of meat in due season ? 
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he cometh, shall 
find so doing. Of a truth, I say unto you, that he will make 
him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say 
in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming ; and shall begin 
to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat and drink 
and to be drunken ; the lord of that servant will come in a 

1 2 Cor. vi. 16. 2 1 Kings viii. 38, 39. 

3 St. Luke xii. 41. 



III.] 



THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 



81 



day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is 
not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him 
his portion with the unbelievers." Stewards, therefore, there 
are, who are rulers over God's household, having authority 
over their fellow-servants, appointed to give them their re- 
spective portions of "meat in due season," who are charged 
with a separate responsibility, and encouraged with a higher 
reward. 

Perhaps the truest way of regarding these sacred Sayings 
in this respect, is to look upon them all as having this double 
application. In this view they do refer " to all," and yet 
they do refer also, more especially, to the Apostles ; that is, 
they may be taken as said to the Apostles, partly as the repre- 
sentatives, and partly as the rulers of the Church, or, more 
exactly, as the representatives, and therefore the rulers of the 
Church. It is in this manner that St. Augustine says, that 
f it is confessed that the strong things which are said to St. 
Peter are said to him, inasmuch as he bears the figure of the 
Church j" 4 and, interpreting the passage in which our Lord 
breathes on the Apostles and imparts to them the power of 
absolution, alleges that " the Apostles bore the character of 
the Church, and so these things were said to them as if they 
were said to the Church ; so that it is the peace of the Church 
which forgiveth sins." 5 Thus it is because the Church is 
royal, that the Apostles rule on thrones ) because the Church 
is priestly, that the Apostles absolve ; because the Church is 
prophetic, that the Apostles are the teachers of the world. 
The gift which is diffused in all is concentrated in them. It 
is in all, because it inheres essentially in the Body of Christ, 
which all together are ; it is in them, because they have the 
separate duty of ordained shepherds, and overseers of the 
flock. As Christ is both the Head and the Body, both the 
Boor and the Shepherd, both the Sacrifice and the God of 

4 S. Augustin. Enarr. in Ps. cviii. (4, 1215.) 

6 S. Augustin. de Bapt. adv. Donat. lib. iii. c. xviii. (9, 117.) 



82 



THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



the Sacrifice; so are His people, too, kings and subjects, 
priests and penitents, trusted with the oracles of God and 
disciples; so are His Apostles and their successors sheep as 
well as shepherds, sinners and subjects as well as guides and 
comforters of their brethren. 

However, there are three of the Sayings of these great days 
which do most clearly impart authority within the Church. 
The first of these is thus recorded by St. Matthew : " Make 
disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you." 6 And again by St. Mark : " Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature." 7 And it is thus 
referred to in the words recorded by St. Luke : " Thus it is 
written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from 
the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of 
sins should be preached in his name among all nations, be- 
ginning at Jerusalem." 8 

When we combine these Sayings into one, we find that the 
Apostles were directed to go forth to all the world, to all 
nations, to every creature ; to preach to them the Gospel, the 
glad tidings of repentance and remission of sins, and to make 
disciples of them. This was to be done by baptizing, or dip- 
ping them in water, into the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them at the same time 
to observe all the Christian laws of righteousness delivered by 
our Lord to His disciples while remaining on the earth. 

The great Baptismal Commission ! comprising the tradition 
of Christian doctrine, the charge io enlarge the kingdom of 
heaven, the rule for saving souls, the mode of making others 
believe through their word, the secret of becoming fishers of 
men ! 

On this mighty subject, containing as it does so much and 

6 St. Matt, xxviii. 19. ? gt. Mark xvi. 15, 

8 St. Luke xxiv. 46. 



III.] THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 83 

various matter of the deepest interest and consequence, it is 
impossible to enter fully. One portion of it, the peculiar form 
of Holy Baptism, into " the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Grhost," regarded as containing the tra- 
dition of Christian doctrine and the essential being of the 
Church, will be treated in the ensuing discourse. 

The remaining part of this great Saying may be considered, 
1. As conveying authority to teach all nations the truth of 
Grod, and His gracious forgiveness in Christ; and, 2. As con- 
taining the institution of Holy Baptism, by means of which 
that gracious forgiveness, and all other sacred privileges of 
the membership of Christ's Church, are imparted ; and, 3. As 
enacting the law of obedience to the moral commandments of 
Christ. 

Of these three points, the first (that is, the universality of 
the offer of blessing in Christ) needs but small illustration. 
For it is quite clear, upon the face of the ancient Scriptures, 
that it had throughout been the declared design of God that 
no portion of mankind should be excluded from participating 
in the mercy which He would bring to pass in Christ. Such 
a purpose was indicated in the original promise given to con- 
sole our first parents at the fall. Such a purpose was ex- 
pressly declared in the great evangelical promise made to 
Abraham 9 (and repeated to Isaac and J acob), that in his seed 
all nations and families of the earth — seed as numberless as 
the dust of the earth, or the stars of heaven, or the sand of 
the sea-shore, — should be blessed. 

The Psalms 1 are full to the same point, and declare in 
numberless places the spreading of the Messiah's kingdom 
over the whole earth. The same is the case with the prophets, 3 
who abundantly predict the flowing in of all nations, the con- 
version of the abundance of the sea, and the coming in of the 

9 Gen. xii. 3 ; xviii. 18 ; xxii. 18 ; xxvi. 4 ; xxviii. 14. 

1 Ps. ii. 8 ; xxii. 27, 28 ; lii. 8, &c. 

2 Is. lx. ; xlix., &c 



84 THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. [DISC. 

forces of the Gentitles to Christ in His Church. The Lord 
spoke of the " other sheep" 3 which He had, which were not of 
the Jewish fold, and how He must bring them too, and they 
should hear His voice, so that there should be one fold, and 
one shepherd. 

The universality, therefore, of the mission of the Apostles, 
was plainly in accordance with the whole stream of ancient 
prophecy, and of the promises of the Church delivered by our 
Lord in His life. 

The earlier Scriptures also give abundant promise that in 
the fulness of time, a full and free forgiveness of sins should 
form a principal part of the blessings prepared for the world. 
This point, like the last, is almost too obvious and common 
upon every page of the ancient prophetic writings to admit of 
being completely exhibited by quotations. The Psalms and 
the Prophets are full of it. Every denunciation of woe and 
judgment ends in hope and mercy; every declaration of mercy 
to a sinful and guilty people takes the form of forgiveness and 
remission of sins. So the prophet Isaiah writes, in one out 
of numberless other passages to the same effect : " Therefore 
will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and 
therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon 
you ; for the Lord is a God of judgment : blessed are all they 
that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at 
Jerusalem : thou shalt weep no more. He will be very 
gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry : when he shall hear 
it, he shall answer it." 4 So the prophets Jeremiah and 
Ezekiel 5 tell us of the new and everlasting covenant which 
God will make with Israel and Judah, the covenant of His 
law in their inward parts, written in their hearts, when He 
should be their God, and they should be His people ; when 
He would forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no 



3 St. John x. 16. 4 Isa. xxx. 18, 19. 

5 Jer. xxxii. 30. Ezek. xvi. 60. 



III.] THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 85 

more ; when He should be pacified toward them for all that 
they had done. 

They, also, speaking of this coming forgiveness, repeatedly 
connect it with the mention of a washing, a making clean by 
water, a sprinkling. " In that day, there shall be a fountain 
opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem, for sin and uncleanness." 6 u Wash you, make you 
clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine 
eyes." 7 " Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, 
that thou mayest be saved." 8 u Then will I sprinkle clean 
water upon you, and ye shall be clean : from all your filthi- 
ness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new 
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within 
you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh 
and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my 
spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and 
ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." 9 

The ancient history had also contained more than one most 
signal type of this deliverance by water, which God designed 
to bring to pass in Christ for mankind. The first of these 
was the deliverance of Noah and his family in the ark, 
| wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water j the 
like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth now save us." 1 
For the flood was " the baptism of the world, whereby its 
former iniquity was purged," 2 and " the little ship exhibited 
a figure of the Church, which in the sea (that is, in the world) 
is tossed about by the waves (that is, by persecutions and 
trials)." _ u For as the waters of the flood drowned the un- 
godly, as a heap of filthiness washed them away, them and 
their sin together as one being inseparable ; and upon the 
same waters the ark floating preserved Noah ; thus the waters 
of baptism are intended as a deluge to drown sin, and save the 



6 Zech. xiii. 1. 

8 Jer. iv. 14. 

l 1 St. Pet. iii. 20. 



, 7 Isa. i. 16. drto tfuif vfjtCjp, LXX. 

9 Ezek. xxx vi. 25—27. 
2 Tertullian de Baptismo, c. 8. 
8 



86 



THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



believer, who by faith is separated both from the world and 
from his sin : so it sinks and he is saved." 3 

Another most eminent type of the deliverance of the 
Church from sin in baptism was the passage of the Red Sea, 
and as such it is spoken of by St. Paul in the 1st Epistle to 
the Corinthians. 4 " Who is wise," says St. Basil, " and will 
understand these things ? As the sea is, typically, baptism, 
separating the Israelites from the power of Pharaoh, so this 
laver separates men from the tyranny of the devil. The sea 
killed the enemy in itself, and in baptism also our enmity 
against G-od dies. The people issued from the sea uninjured, 
and we come up from the water as living from dead, having 
been saved by the grace of Him that called us." 5 And St. 
Augustine, " That people is freed from the Egyptians by 
Moses; this people is freed from their former life of sins by 
our Lord Jesus Christ. That people passed through the Red 
Sea ; this through baptism. In the Red Sea die all the 
enemies of that people ; all our sins die in baptism." 6 

Such, indeed, was the fulness and clearness of the ancient 
Scripture and typical history in respect of the promise, that 
the peculiar blessing of the Gospel was to be imparted by 
means of water and washing, that the Pharisees, when they 
received the answer of John the Baptist to the enquiries 
which they had made of him, asked in surprise, " Why bap- 
tizeth thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither 
that prophet ?" 7 plainly showing by this question, that if any 
one of these three persons had baptized, he would only have 
acted as the predictions of the earlier Scriptures had led them 
to expect. 

These same good tidings, repentance for the remission of 
sins, was the matter of the Baptist's teaching, as it was also 

3 Abp. Leighton on St. Peter, vol. iii. p. 256. 

4 1 Cor. x. 1, 2. 6 St. Basil de Sp. S. c. xiv. 

6 St. August. Enarr. in Psalm, lxxii. (vol. iv. p. 756.) 

7 St. John i. 25. 



III.] THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 87 

of the early teaching of the Lord Himself ; and the water 
baptism administered to the people by John in the Jordan, 
the baptism of present repentance unto a coming remission, 
was the last of all those prophecies and types of the deliver- 
ance about to be given by Christ in His Church by means of 
water. 8 

The baptism of our Lord in the river J ordan was no longer 
a type, it was rather the significant institution, the preliminary 
and still unexplained consecration of the rite of Holy Baptism. 
" For this cause," says St. Clement of Alexandria, " He sub- 
mitted to be baptized, 9 that He might sanctify all water to 
those who receive regeneration." " Why was the perfect 
baptized ? It was necessary, He says, to fulfil the human 
precept. 1 Well, I say so too. Did He then, together with 
the baptism by John, become perfect ? Certainly. Did He 
then learn nothing from him ? No. Is He then perfected 
by the bath only, and sanctified by the descent of the Spirit ? 
It is so. This same thing then happens to us also, of whom 
the Lord has been made the model. Baptized, we are en- 
lightened ; enlightened, we are made sons ; made sons, we are 
perfected ; perfected, we are made immortal, f I have said/ 
it says, ' ye are gods, and all sons of the highest/ So this 
work is often called ' the gift/ £ the enlightening/ * the per- 
fection/ ' the bath/ " a " J ordan had more need to come to 
Him, than He to Jordan. ' Lavit aquas Ipse, non aquae 
Ipsum/ The waters were baptized by Him ; they baptized 
Him not. He went into them, (ut aquae nos purgaturas, 
prius per Ipsum purgarentur, — it is Epiphanius,) that they 
which should cleanse us might by Him first be cleansed. It 
is certain. So He received no cleanness, no virtue; but 
virtue He gave to Jordan, to the waters, to the Sacrament 

8 St. Matt- iii. 2 ; iv. 17. St. Mark i. 4. 

9 S. Clem. Alex. Fragm. sec. 7. 
' irtdyys tyitt. 

2 S. Clem. Alex. Pasdag. c. vi. 



88 



THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



itself." 3 " Christ, who is our Creator and Redeemer in the 
new birth, opened the fountain, and hallowed the stream. 
Christ, who is our life, went down into the waters of baptism, 
and we who descend thither find the effects of life." 4 

With the commencement of our Lord's own teaching, the 
anticipation of this great doctrine of deliverance by water 
becomes more particular, and points more exactly to the 
nature of the blessing about to be given. The Baptist had 
begun, in some degree, to exhibit it, when he repeatedly con- 
trasted his own baptism with that of his Lord. " I indeed 
baptize you with water unto repentance ; but he that cometh 
after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
fire." 5 But the full statement was made, in anticipation and 
promise of the coming blessing, by the Lord Himself, in the 
first discourse He is recorded to have spoken in His ministry, 
the discourse of His first Passover, addressed to Nicodemus. 

In that discourse, the reference of which to the subject of 
Holy Baptism is attested by the unanimous voice of Catholic 
antiquity, 6 the Lord no longer speaks only of a " forgiveness" 
by means of water, but unfolding more exactly the nature of 
the blessing about to be given, speaks of a new birth, to be 
given by water and the Holy Ghost. " Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." 7 " Except a man be born of water and 
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." " For- 
giveness of sins" is comprised within, and is a property of 
this sacred new birth of the Holy Ghost, for man receives 
" remission of sins by spiritual regeneration ;" 8 and water is, 
according to the earlier prophecies, still the external instru- 

3 Bp. Andrewes, Serm. viii. On the Holy Ghost. 

4 Bp. Taylor, Life of Christ, vol. ii. p. 235. 

6 St. Matt. iii. 11. St. Mark i. 8, &c. Acts i. 5 ; xi. 16. 

6 Vide this point proved beyond possibility of question in Dr. Pusey's 
Tract on Baptism, pp. 29 — 41, 2d edit. 

7 St. John iii. 35. 8 Collect in the Baptismal Service. 



III.] 



THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION, 



89 



merit and means whereby this precious gift is conveyed to 
man. This further revelation of the nature of the gift about 
to be given, throws light, retrospectively, on expressions of 
the older Scriptures like those quoted above from the prophet 
Ezekiel. " I will sprinkle clean water upon you : . . . a new 
heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. 
And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I 
will give you an heart of flesh. " 9 

Won then by the death of the cross, and assured by the 
Resurrection from the dead, 1 in this great Saying of the Forty 
Days, the ancient and repeated prophecies of Grod's mercy 
and forgiveness by means of water, receive their full accom- 
plishment. Henceforth, repentance for the remission of sins, 
the Grospel to all creatures, the discipleship and regeneration 
of all nations in holy baptism, is authoritatively instituted and 
proclaimed to the end of the world. 

And so do Apostles, and Apostolic men in the later Scrip- 
tures, fully bear out, as by a Divine commentary, the meaning 
set upon this great Saying. From the day of the descent of 
the Holy Grhost to give the power to those to whom these 
sacred words had given the right of baptizing in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Grhost, when 
there were added unto them 2 by baptism about three thousand 

t 9 Ezek. xxxvi. 25—27. 

1 Ad cujus. rei confirmationem plurimum valet, quod ipse Dominus 
Jesus Christus posteaquam resurrexit a mortuis, discipulis suis, in quibus 
omnes Ecclesiarum Prassules docebantur, et formam et potestatem tradidit 
baptizandi, dicens, Euntes docete, &c. De quo utique eos etiam ante 
passionem posset instruere, nisi pi-opre voluisset intelligi, regenerationis 
gratiam ex sua resurrectione coepisse. — S. Leo, Ep. xvi. c. iii. 

Itaque tingebant discipuli ejus ut tninistri, ut Joannes ante precursor, 
eodem baptismo Joannis, ne qui alio putet, quia nec extat alius, nisi posted 
Cbristi, qui bunc ut : que a discentibus dari non poterat, utpote nondum 
adimpleta gloria Domini, nec instructs efficacia lavacri per passionem et 
resurrectionem ; quia nec mors nostra dissolvi posset nisi Domini passione, 
pec vita restitui sine resurrectione ipsius. — Tertull. de Bapt. xl, 

2 Acts ii. 41. 

8* 



90 



THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC- 



souls, to this sacred washing is attributed the forgiveness of 
sin, the partaking of the death and resurrection of Christ, the 
new birth, the salvation, the sanctification of Christian people. 
" And now, why tarriest thou ? Arise, and be baptized, and 
wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord." 3 
" Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, Parthians, and 
Medes, and Elainites, and dwellers in all parts of the earth, 
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is 
unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, 
even as many as the Lord our God shall call." 4 " Know ye 
not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, 
were baptized into his death ? Therefore we are buried with 
him by baptism into death." 5 " Buried with him in baptism, 
wherein also ye are risen with him." 6 " Baptism doth now 
save us, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." 7 * Christ loved 
the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify 
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word." 8 
" Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of 
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, 
and our bodies washed with pure water." 9 " According to his 
mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renew- 
ing of the Holy Ghost." 1 * 

Before we leave this part of the subject, it will be well to 
notice a particular point in the narrative of the baptism of 
our Lord in the river Jordan, which, as unfolded and explained 
by St. Augustine, seems to be important in completing the 
view of the doctrine of Holy Baptism. In St. John's Gospel 
we read as follows : " And John bare record, saying, I saw 
the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode 

3 Acts xxii. 16. 4 Ibid. ii. 38, 39. 5 R om . vi . 3> 4> 

6 Col. ii. 12. 7 1 Pet. iii. 21. 8 E pll> y . 2 6. 

9 Heb. x. 22. - 1 Tit. iii. 5. 

* 1 Cor. vi. 11. . . . "but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye 
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' 
Vid. 



III.] THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. 91 

upon him. And I knew him not : but he that sent me to 
baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou 
shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the 
same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." 3 What, 
then, asks St. Augustine, was it that the Baptist did not 
know ? Did he not know Jesus ? did he not know Him to 
be the Lord, to be the Son of God, to be the Christ ? did he 
not know that He was about to baptize with the Holy Ghost ? 
Yes : all these things he assuredly knew ; for he had long 
been teaching the people that the Person who was to come 
after him should baptize with the Holy Ghost ; and he had 
endeavoured to forbid the baptism of the Lord by saying, " I 
have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me T f 
These things therefore he knew. What then could he yet be 
ignorant of? The point which he had not known before, and 
which by the descent of the dove he learned, according to St. 
Augustine, was this — that Christ should retain in Himself, 
and not part with, or bestow on others, the original power of 
baptizing with the Holy Ghost. He, in all the world, who- 
soever might be the instrument, should alone be the true 
Baptizer with the Holy Ghost. Being ever present with the 
Church, He alone should keep the authority, and bestow the 
grace of Holy Baptism. Apostles, priests, and deacons, might 
baptize as ministers ; but He, in them all, should be for ever 
the sole and true baptizer with the Holy Ghost. This was 
the secret, the lesson, the doctrine which the Baptist learned 
from the dove. Thus, then, when, in the first instance, the 
Holy Ghost descended to designate and make our Lord the 
sole and authoritative Baptizer of the world, He descended in 
One, and on One. Amid the fullest and clearest manifesta- 
tion of the Holy Trinity, (the Father in the voice, the Son in 
the man, the Spirit in the dove,) Christ was declared to be 
the single and true giver, in all the world, of the baptism of 
the Holy Ghost. 

3 St. John i. 32. 



P2 



THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION. [DISC. 



When, however, the Apostles, already charged to go teach 
all nations, and baptize them into the sacred Name of the 
Holy Trinity, received their ministerial " power from above," 
to enable them to execute this office of baptizing for Christ, 
the Holy Grhost descended no longer in one, and on one, but 
in many, and on many. He was no longer in the form of 
the dove, but divided in tongues, and sat upon the head of 
each. Thus then the single dove declares that there is one 
baptism, and one Baptizer; the many tongues declare the 
multitude and diversity of the ministers. Baptism is one and 
many : one in Christ, many in the Apostles ; one in the source 
and origin of power, many in the instruments of imparting it ; 
one in the gift, many in the languages, countries, ages of the 
world ; one in the dove, many in the tongues. 

Such is, I believe, a fair representation of St. Augustine's 
remarkable and most valuable commentary upon this passage ) 
and it admirably illustrates, in the case of Holy Baptism, the 
case and condition of Christ's Church in respect of all its con- 
stitution and privileges. One she is in Christ, many in the 
Apostles ; one in the spring and source of life, power, grace,- 
and salvation, many in those who, succeeding to the Apostles, 
administer that grace and life in many lands, languages, and 
ages of the world. The Church knows no single source of 
power, no single head of authority, no single spring of grace, 
but Christ, — the one Baptizer with the Holy Grhost, her ever- 
present life, and strength, and Lord. 3 

The remaining point, that is, the law of moral obedience 
delivered to the Apostles in this great Saying, requires no 
particular illustration either from the earlier or the later Scrip- 
tures. The Lord had, in His own teaching, amply sanctioned 
and enlarged the law of the Decalogue, and had told His dis- 
ciples, that u except their righteousness should exceed the 
righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, they should in no 



S. August. Tract, in Joh. iv. v. vi. (vol. iii. p. 2, 312—341.) 



III.] 



POWER TO REMIT, ETC. 



93 



case enter into the kingdom of heaven j" 4 and this was the 
very end and purpose for which He " gave himself for us, 
that he might redeem us from ail iniquity, and purify unto 
himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." 5 It is to 
be observed, that this law of obedience is not a separate and 
independent law, but one which belongs to, and forms part of, 
the general commission of Holy Baptism. For Holy Baptism 
is not merely a means of the forgiveness of our sins, but also 
a new birth unto righteousness j and " therefore we are buried 
with Christ by baptism into death ; that like as he was raised 
up from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life." 6 

It is not, however, to be supposed that the various declara- 
tions of Grod's design of mercy and forgiveness of sinners, 
scattered in such profusion over the books of the Old Testa- 
ment, all found their final and complete fulfilment in the 
plenary remission of sins given in the sacred font of holy 
baptism. To this forgiveness they refer, no doubt, and prin- 
cipally. For this is the one great forgiveness on the earth, 
which promises and assures the other great forgiveness in the 
day of Judgment, if men, placed in a state of salvation in 
baptism, bring forth much fruit in their life, and make, by 
God's grace, their calling and election sure. 7 This is the 
great " fountain opened for sin and uncleanness," s in which 
Christians "are washed, are sanctified, are justified 9 in the 
name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of G-od." But for 
those who, early baptized into the one Christian body, have 
to live many years in the discharge of the duty of members 
of that body, who having been early grafted into the life- 
giving vine, live on and long enjoy on earth the spiritual 
strength and vitality that circulates among the branches, there 
needeth a further accompanying grace of remission, a rock, 1 
as it were, to follow them, which shall relieve, and comfort, 

4 St. Matt. v. 20. 5 Titus ii. 14. 6 Eom. vi. 4. 7 2 St. Pet, i. 10, 
8 Zech. xiii. 1. 9 1 Cor. vi. 11. 1 1 Cor. x. 4. 



94 POWER TO REMIT [DISC. 

and restore them in many fallings off, in many weaknesses, in 
many human frailties, it may be in many heavier sins and 
sorrows. And if there were none such — if the plenary grace 
and forgiveness of baptism were the last and only forgiveness 
with which G-od had furnished His Church on earth, then 
dark indeed, darker than those of Jews or heathens, would 
be the prospect of baptized Christians living on in the flesh, 
and sterner the law of the life-giving font than those heavy 
laws of works under which every mouth was stopped, 2 and the 
whole world became guilty in the sight of God. Then, in- 
deed, it were well to die 3 on rising from the laver of regene- 
ration, and to carry, as it were, the pure lustre of the hardly 
recovered metal at once to heaven, which every touch of the 
world's air would surely throw back, hopelessly and for ever, 
into that earthy state from which it had been once and for a 
moment rescued. 

But, praised be God, such is not the condition in which we 
are left, who have been early baptized into His blessed Church, 
and have received long ago the initiatory remission wherewith 
our Christian life began. 

To each member of the life-giving body there belongs, from 
the very force of his position in the body, a blessed privilege 
of drawing near to God in Christ, whereby he may bewail his 
sins, and receive comfort to his secret soul. As the whole 
body 4 is royal, priestly, and prophetic, so do all the separate 

2 Rom. iii. 19. 

3 And without these reserves of the Divine Grace, and after-emanations 
from the mercy seat, no man could be saved, and the death of Christ 
would become inconsiderable to most of His greatest purposes ; for none 
should have received advantages but newly baptized persons, whose albs 
of baptism served them also for a winding-sheet. — Bp. Taylor on Repent- 
ance, vol. ii. p. 405. 

4 Quod autem cum dixisset, In istis secunda mors non habet potestafem, 
adjunxit atque ait, Sed erunt sacerdotes Dei atque Christi, et regnabunt cum 
eo mille annos : non utique de solis Episcopis et Presbyteris dictum est, 
qui proprie jam vocantur in Ecclesia Sacerdotes : sed sicut omues 
' Christiano3' dicimus propter mysticum ' Chrisma,' sic omnes sacerdotes) 



III.] AND RETAIN SINS. 95 

members of the body share these same glorious titles ; so are 
they, though less than the least in rank, station, ability, or 
knowledge, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy 
nation, a peculiar people, 5 who, in Christ, have access to His 
Father, and their Father — their Father which is in heaven. 
It is impossible that we can be wrong in applying to this per- 
sonal privilege of prayer those many and most affecting words 
of David in the Spirit, whereby he gave utterance to his own 
grief and penitence, and gave utterance also, prophetically, to 
the grief and penitence of the Church in after-times, and of 
separate penitents in Christ. None can doubt, who reads the 
fifty-first Psalm, for instance, and remembers that it was 
written " when Nathan the prophet came unto him" 6 with the 
sentence of God's absolution, and also how it has been adopted, 
with the other Psalms, by the universal Church of Christ as 
her expression of religious feeling, that it declares in prophecy, 
that besides the administration of an external sentence, God 
will have mercy according to His loving-kindness, and accord- 
ing unto the multitude of His tender mercies will blot out the 
transgressions 7 of those who, in Christ, acknowledge their 
transgressions, and ever keep their sin before them. This 
blessed privilege of prayer, too, is repeatedly promised by our 
Lord in His own life. It is promised in the command to 
pray, "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation;" in 
the parable spoken " unto them to this end, that men ought 
always to pray, and not to faint ;" s in the gift of a model of 
prayer, in the very address of that prayer, " Our Father, 
which art in heaven" (for He is our Father, as we are mem- 
bers of His beloved Son ; and what man is there of us, whom 

quoniam membra sunt urrius Sacerdotis. De quibus apostolus Petrus, 
Plebs, inquit, sancta, regale sacerdotium. — S. August, de Civ. Dei, lib. xx. 
c. x. 
6 1 St. Pet. ii. 9. 

6 The title of the 51st Psalm, cf. 2 Snm. xii. 1—13. 

7 li. 1, 3. 8 St. Luke xviii. 1, 



96 



POWER TO REMIT 



[DISC. 



if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone ?) ; in the peti- 
tion, " Forgive us our trespasses," of which St. Augustine 
does not scruple to say that it is, as it were, a daily baptism 9 
for the forgiveness of daily sins, and which our Lord Himself, 
by His manner of discoursing on His prayer, seems to put 
forward as if it were the most special and important petition 
of all. For as soon as the prayer is given, He goes on to say, 
" For if ye forgive men their trespasses; your heavenly Father 
will also forgive you ; but if ye forgive not men their tres- 
passes, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." 1 It 
is promised in several distinct and express sayings : " Ask, 
and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, 
and it shall be opened unto you." 2 " What things soever ye 
desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall 
have them." It is still more expressly promised as a privi- 
lege of the coming kingdom, as dependent upon the presence 
of the Lord in the Holy Grhost, and therefore as about -to be 
given " in that day," the day of the Church, which fully 
shone on the world at the great Pentecost. " And whatsoever 
ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may 
be glorified in the Son." 3 " If ye abide in me, and my words 
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done 
unto you." " I have chosen you, and ordained you, that 
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may 
give it you." " In that day, ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, 

9 Sed quoniam victuri sumus in isto sseculo, ubi quis non vivit sine 
peccato, ideo remissio peccatorum non est in sola ablutione sacri bap- 
tismatis, sed etiam in oratione Dominica et quotidiana, quam post octo 
dies accepturi estis. In ilia invenietis quasi quotidianum baptisma ves- 
tmm, ut agatis Deo gratias, qui donavit hoc munus Ecclesiae suae, quod 
confitemur in Symbolo: ut cum diximus, Sanctam Ecclesiam, adjungamus 
Rtmissionem peccatorum. — Serm. ccxiii. In Tradit. Symboli, viii. 

1 St. Matt. vi. 14. 

2 St. Matt. vii. 7. St. Mark xi. 24. Cf. St. Matt. xxi. 22. St. Luke 



3 St. John xiv. 13 ; xv. 7, 16 ; xvi. 23. St. Matt, xviii. 19, 20. 



III.] AND RETAIN SINS. 97 

verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in 
my name, he will give it you." " If two of you shall agree 
on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be 
done for them of my Father which is in heaven ; for where 
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in 
the midst of them." 

Thus, then, on the most assured word of God may every 
baptized man pray \ may come in the reverent and sorrowful 
attitude of an offending child to a merciful Father; may 
confess, and weep, and ask for pardon, and may feel no doubt 
but earnestly believe, that He who loves to be called his 
Father will look on him with a Father's eyes of loving and 
tender forgiveness. 

And again : not only the prayers which are directly offered 
for forgiveness of sin, but every other means also of spiritual 
help and growth in grace is, in its own proper force and 
nature, a means of pardon. 4 From the earliest germ of spiritual 
life within us, when we were first put into the state of grace 
and received " remission of sins by spiritual regeneration," 5 
to the final perfection of the saints, every accession of spiritual 
growth, as it cannot be unless accompanied by repentance and 
loathing of our sins, is an accession of favour and goodwill of 
God ; and favour and goodwill of G-od are in themselves, to 
those who are imperfectly holy, forgiveness and pardon. It 
is not that spiritual indwelling is one gift, and pardon another, 

4 Fifthly : that baptism does not only pardon our sins, but puts us into 
a state of pardon for the time to come. For baptism is the beginning of 
the new life, and an admission of us into the evangelical covenant. So 
that by baptism we are consigned to the mercies of God and the graces 
of the Gospel ; that is, that our pardon be continued, and our piety be a 
state of repentance.— Bp. Taylor, vol. ii. pp. 245—247, 279, 280 

As the habit lessens, so does the guilt ; as our virtues are imperfect, so 
is the pardon ; and because our piety may be interrupted, our state is 
uncertain, till our possibilities of sin are ceased, till our fight is finished, 
and the victory therefore made sure, because there is no more fight. — 
Ibid. p. 400. 

5 Baptismal Service. 

9 



98 



POWER TO REMIT 



[DISC. 



except as far as we ourselves make distinctions, or regard the 
same thing in different points of view. It is, that where G-od 
dwelleth, there is holiness ; that where He dwelleth more 
abundantly, there is more holiness. As, in the natural body, 
the force of indwelling vitality and health, if it be vigorous 
and increasing, suffices to throw off peccant humours, and to 
restore the animal functions, not wholly disarranged and 
morbid, to healthful action, so if, in the soul of man, the Holy 
Spirit of G-od be increasingly present, its sins are, by the mere 
force of Divine presence and favour, forgiven and obliterated. 
Thus the increase of love, the growth of faith, the strengthen- 
ing of any Divine virtue, under grace, in the heart of man, is 
in its degree efficient in bringing him into closer union, nearer 
likeness, and greater favour with his Lord. But among all 
the means of grace, there is none so peculiarly powerful to in- 
dicate and bring the mercy and forgiving 6 love of God upon 
His people, as the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood 
of Christ. Thereby He particularly assureth us " of His 
favour and goodness towards us, and that we are very members 
incorporate in the mystical Body of His Son, which is the 
blessed company of all faithful people, and are also heirs 
through hope of His everlasting kingdom." 7 Thereby, accord- 
ing to His own most true promise, men have eternal life, 3 
resurrection, and indwelling of Christ, and how can sin, which 
God abhorreth, remain unforgiven where these are found ? 

These, however, are means of forgiveness of sin after bap- 
tism, which result from doctrines already considered; — from 
the efficacy of Holy Baptism, duly administered under the 
Apostolic commission, planting men in the life-giving body, 

6 Manducavi panem meum cum melle meo. Vides quod in hoc pane nulla 
sit amaritudo, sed omnis suavitas sit ? Bibi vinum meum cum lacte meo. 
Vides hujusmodi esse laititiam quas nullius peccati sordibus polluatur ? 
Quotiescunque enim bibis, remissionem accipis peccatorum, et inebriaris 
in spiritu. — S. Ambros. de Sacram. e. v. c. 3. (p. 376. vol. ii.) 

7 Second prayer of the Post- Communion Service. 

8 St. John vi. 54. 56. 



III.] 



AND RETAIN SINS. 



99 



to which the Presence of the Lord of the Church is promised 
even unto the end of the world. But our sacred Lord left His 
Church still more comfort in this respect than is to be derived 
from these doctrines only. " And when he had said this, he 
breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 
them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." 9 
In these sacred words, and by the spirit-giving breath, the 
Lord conveyed a very great and signal power, which, as we 
learn from the Gospels, was peculiarly His own, as He was 
the Son of Man. For when certain of the Scribes, taking 
offence at His saying to the sick of the palsy, " Son, be of 
good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee/' said within them- 
selves, " This man blasphemeth " who can forgive sins but 
God alone V our Lord, not thinking at that time well to an- 
nounce His Divine right 10 of forgiveness, but in order that 
they might know that the Son of Man hath power (IfouoiW, 
delegated power) upon the earth Qni tvjs yrjs) to forgive sins, 
then said to the sick of the palsy, "Arise, take up thy bed, 
and go into thine house/' 1 Thus the power of forgiveness 
on the earth was delegated to Christ as the Son of Man, as 
that Son of Man to whom the Spirit was given without mea- 
sure, that Son of Man who was sacredly and for ever united 
in one Person with the Son of God. 2 This power He now 
gave to the Apostles, the successors of the Son of Man upon 
the earth, by the gift of the same Holy Ghost, by whom it 
was in Himself. 

9 St. John xx. 22, 23. 

10 The power of remitting sin is originally in God, and in God alone ; 
and in Christ our Saviour, by means of the union of the Godhead and 
manhood into one Person, by virtue whereof the Son of Man hath power to 
forgive sins upon earth. This of the Apostles is nothing else but a branch 
out of His, which He Himself (as man) had here upon earth. For as man He 
Himself was sent, and was anointed with the Spirit, and proceeded by 
commission. — Bp. Andrewes, Of the Power of Absolution. 

1 St. Matt. ix. 2. St. Luke v. 21. 

2 Vide Appendix, on the Son of Man. 



100 



POWER TO REMIT 



[DISC. 



This power the Apostles exercised in two principal ways : 3 — 
first, by admitting persons, or refusing them admission to 
Holy Baptism, which is the one great means of immediate, 
and covenant of future remission ; and afterwards, by express 
and particular absolutions, publicly or privately administered, 
of post-baptismal sin. Either sort of forgiveness, duly pro- 
nounced by them upon the earth as successors of the Son of 
Man, should be ratified by Himself, the Son of God, in hea- 
ven 5 and thus should He be, on earth mediately, in heaven 
immediately, 4 the dispenser of those two pardons of which He 
repeatedly spoke, " the pardon in this world, and in the world 
to come," " the loosiug on earth, and the loosing in heaven." 

Hardly any prophecies of the Old Testament can be adduced 
to bear directly on the present point. The Prophets are full 
on the point of the forgiveness which Christ should offer to 
His Church • but the manner in which He should exercise 
this office, whether by any immediate sentence pronounced by 
Himself from heaven, or through the intervention of autho- 
rized ministers, they do not distinguish. There is, however, 
one passage which ought to be cited in this regard, as being 
very plainly referred to in one of the most signal passages in 
which the Lord Himself anticipates His approaching gift to 
the Church. It occurs in the twenty-second chapter of Isaiah, 
where Shebna and Eliakim are made respectively the types of 

3 Ofidai ys/xqv a/xagtias, rj-toc xatszovtiw ol rtvsv/xa'totyogoi xafd 8vo 
•t^oriovs xatd ys bidvooav s/xr-v' q yap xaJkovow srti tfo j5d7ttics/xa, — 
(rj Siaxcohvovcb 1iv.a$) yj xai xad' stsgov t^oriov atylaGi te xai x^atovGiv 
d/xagtCas, e7titiiA<Zptes /xsv dfxaptavovGv rotj -frjs sxxKqalas tsxvots, 
(xstavoovai 8s avyytyviAaxovtss, xaddrtfp d/xs'Ksi 6 Hav%o$ tbv tv Kogt,v9cc) 
rtogvtvriavra 7taps8i8ov /xsv sl$ oteOpov trji Gagxbc, iva to rivsv/xa 6u9y' 
7tpotJL£T'o 8s avOis, ivtx uri rtspt-GOotsga %v7tv] jcaTOWtof?^. — S. Cyril. 
Alex. vol. iv. p. 1101. 

4 Quamvis igitur magnum sit hominibus peccata dimittere, (quis enim 
potest peccata dimittere, nisi solus Deus, qui per eos quoque dimittit 
quibus dimittendi tribuit potestatem ?) &c — S. Ambros., Exp. Ev. S. Luc. 
lib. v. (p. 1358, ed. Bened.) 



III.] 



AND RETAIN SINS, 



101 



the Jewish priesthood and of Christ. " And it shall come to 
pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim, the son 
of Hilkiah ; and I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen 
him with thy girdle, 5 and I will commit thy government into 
his hand : and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of J eru- 
salem and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house 
of David will I lay upon his shoulder ; so he shall open, and 
none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open." 8 
There is no doubt that " the house of David," in this passage, 
is the Church of Christ, that " the key" signifies all authority 
of opening and shutting, of admitting and excluding from the 
Church, and that the prophecy declares that this key shall 

5 The commentary of Vitringa upon this passage is so important to the 
present argument, that I may be pardoned for making a long extract 
from it. 

" Ex quibus inter se collatis certo collegimus, Sebnam — gessisse figuram 
Procerum et Prasfectorum Judasse gentis ; — dum interea omnis dignitas, 
potestas, prgerogativa regiminis et imperii (clavis Domus Davidis) in Domo 
Dei quae est Ecclesia populi Dei (eadem figurata per Domum Davidis) 
devolveretur in Scheluntem Jacobi cui tradendum erat sceptrum Judas, 
hoc est in verum Eliakimum jam ante suscitatum potentia Patris, et evec- 
tum in ccelos, solenniter inaugurandum prasfecturae Domus Dei ea potest- 
ate et auctoritate, ut abolita omni potestate umbratili et typica, sub 
ceconomia vetere institute, in ipsum unum et solum omnis potestas Eccle- 
siastica transferretur ; ipsius judicium et auctoritas in spiritualibus omnis 
judicii norma esset : omnis sarcina et supellectilia omnia quas Domui Dei 
ornamento aut usui essent, ab Ipso tanquam clavo suspenderentur, h. e. 
omne officium, dignitas, praerogativa, maxima, minima, ab ipso in Ecclesia 
penderet, &c. (p. 660. vol. i.) 

Unde factum, ut claves non tantum figuram gessei'int curve, ifyj? oixovofiLa$, 
sed et potestatis in ordinando gubernandoque statu totius families. Sic 
Dominus manifesto utitur hoc emblemate, ubi ipse ad Petrum, Et dabo 
tibi claves Regni calorum, h. e. post meum in coelum recessum committam 
tibi tuisque consortlbus, ejusdem Apostolatus (muneris indivh i) prasroga- 
tiva insignibus, oixovo/xiav sive potestatem summam rerum in Ecclesia 
ordinandarum et constituendarum, mea vice et loco, per spiritum meum 
vobiscum ubere mensura communicandum.'" (p. 656.) 

Even Grotius, on Ts. xxii. 22, says, " Mysticus sensus in Evangelio Matt, 
xvi. 19." v. Forer. apud Crit Sacr. and Lowth. 

6 Is. xxii. 20—22. 

9* 



102 



POWER TO REMIT 



[DISC. 



belong to the foretold Messiah. Nor do commentators doubt 
that the expressions of this verse are to be interpreted in 
connexion with Rev. iii. 7, (" And to the angel of the Church 
in Philadelphia write : These things saith he that is holy, he 
that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth 
and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth/') 
where that key is spoken of as still belonging to none other 
than Christ, who still exerciseth the authority attaching to it ; 
and with St. Matthew xvi. 19, where the Lord says to St. 
Peter, " And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and 
upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt 
bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." Thus, on 
comparing these three distinct, but much connected passages, 
it becomes clear that the precise authority signified by " the 
key of David" belongs to none other than Christ. It was 
predicted to be only His of old, and, subsequently to the 
establishment of the Church, it is still revealed to be only 
His. Meanwhile it is not the less His, because He declared 
to St. Peter, in anticipation that He would give it to him and 
his brethren (tibi, tuisque consortibus, ejusdem Apostolatus, 
indivisi muneris, prserogativa insignibus), and after the .Resur- 
rection imparted it to them by the Divine Breath, and the 
words of this sacred Saying. (John xx. 23.) 

The words of our Lord, recorded in the eighteenth chapter 
of St. Matthew, are very like to those just quoted from the 
sixteenth. " Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind 
on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall 
loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." 

In this great Saying, then, these mighty promises are ful- 
filled. What was before spoken of as a thing future, as a 
power to be given, as an authority at some unspecified time to 
be bestowed, is here authoritatively and for ever instituted. 



in.] 



AND RETAIN SINS. 



103 



No longer with any priority, or reservation of superiority for 
St. Peter, the sacred breath, conveying the heavenly delega- 
tion to forgive sins upon the earth, is breathed alike on all. 
All 7 alike are put into the sacred place of the Son of Man, 
and made for Him, because in Him, the dispensers of His 
audible sentences of condemnation and pardon on the earth, 
to the end of the world. 

Nor did the Apostles hesitate to claim in its fulness the 
power and authority thus given to them. Witness the words 
of St. Paul, in which he asserts, that in sentence of condemna- 
tion or forgiveness he speaks 8 in the person and with the 
power of Christ, that Christ speaketh in him when he doth 
not spare, 9 that when he useth sharpness of rebuke, he speak- 
eth according to the power which the Lord hath given him. 1 
Witness his delivery of Hymeneus and Alexander 2 unto Satan, 
that they might learn not to blaspheme ; and his Apostolic 
absolution/ sanctioning the sentence of the local priesthood 

7 ""E^oixjt yap ffoutftav afydvai xai SsGpeiv, ol xata Ilstgov trji 
S7ti0xortixrjs 6%iu>9&vts$ XQ-Q'toc,' si yag xai rt^oj Ustgov povov slgqrac 
#6, A^iffco aov, afthu xai rtdao tol<; artoo'to'hois SeSotat,' 7t6ts ; bts slrtsv, 
av "tiviov atyrjts i?a$ afiagtia$i atptsvtai' xai yag t"6, Swrrco, (xiXkovta 
xepvov cf^acVst, tfoDtfi sfi, xov psta n^v avwtavw. — Theopliylact. Comm. 
in S. Matt. c. xvi. 

From all which three thus compared, the general result is this, that the 
power of binding and loosing is a solemn privilege or prerogative of the 
Church of Christ, thrice insisted on by our Saviour : first, by way of pre- 
diction^ that He would confer it, Matt. xvi. ; the second, by way of more 
particular description of the manner, and direction for the end and use of 
it, Matt, xviii. ; and thirdly, by a preparatory kind of instating them in this 
power, an initial investing them with this sacred ghostly authority, John xx. 
(immediately before His final departure from the world), which seemeth 
to have been thoroughly perfected and completed, when, after His Ascension, 
the Holy Ghost did visibly descend upon those to whom these words were 
by Christ then delivered. — Dr. Hammond, Tract of Binding and Loosing, 
c. i. Comm. on St. John xx. 23. Cf. Bp. Sparrow's Kationale, on the 
Absolution. 



8 1 Cor. v. 4. 2 Cor. ii. 10. 
1 2 Cor. xiii. 10. 
3 2 Cor. ii. 10. 



9 2 Cor. xiii. 3. 
2 1 Tim. i. 20. 



104 



POWER TO REMIT, ETC. 



[DISC. 



pronounced upon the incestuous Corinthian. Witness his 
injunctions to Titus and Timothy in their respective dioceses 
" to rebuke sharply," 4 " to rebuke them that sin before all," 
" to reprove and rebuke." 

Ever since this sacred Saying was pronounced, and the holy 
breath of Christ gave the spirit of power, the Apostles, and 
their successors 5 in every age of the Church, have exercised, 
with more or less of faithfulness, but with no general denial 
or question of its efficacy, this marvellous privilege of Christian 
sovereignty and priesthood. By general absolutions, ever 
accompanying her regular public devotions, and by more par- 
ticular ones to meet the heavier repentances of deadly or 
scandalous guilt, by sentences of penance or excommunication, 
in purer days executed, in feebler ones threatened, or regretted 
in the want of them, the Church has always claimed, even 
though she has often with sad imperfection neglected to carry 
out, the system of Divine discipline herein established. 

That we ourselves, in the English branch of the Church, 
have lost a great portion of this sacred discipline, is, alas ! too 
evident ; and that the loss is a great and melancholy one, none 
can doubt who knows what the weight of sin is, how grievous 
and difficult to be borne, the uncertainty of pardon, the com- 
fort and benefit of contrite and humbling confession, or what 
must needs be the efficacy of so gracious and express an insti- 
tution of Divine forgiveness when fully used. Our Church 
herself mourns over her sad deficiency. She laments her 
want of the godly discipline of primitive times f and lament- 

4 Tit. i. 13. 1 Tim v. 20. 2 Tim. iv. 2. 

5 Qualis vero error sit — hinc intelligi potest, quod soli Petro Christus 
dixerit, Qusecunque ligaveris, &c. — et iterum in Evangelio quando in solos 
Apostolos insufflavit Christns dicens, Accipite Spiritnm sanctum ; si cujus 
remiseritis peccata, remittentur illi ; et si cujus tenueritis, tenebuntur. 
Potestas ergo peccatorum remittendorum Apostolis data est, et Ecclesiis 
quas illi a Christo missi constituerunt, et Episcopis qui eis ordinatione 
vicaria successerunt. — Firmilianus apud S. Cyprian. (Ep. p. 225, ed. Fell. 

6 Commination Service. 



HI.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



105 



ing, does she not bid us, her dutiful and attached children, 
pray for its restoration among us, and use whatever means our 
position in life may give us to bring about its re-establish- 
ment ? 

But let us not doubt, even though the lack be great and 
sore, that the weight of post-baptismal sin may yet be for- 
given ! forgiven to the comfort of sorrowing penitents, and 
the restoration of Grod's goodwill and favour. We will not, 
indeed, undervalue the gift which we so negligently and im- 
perfectly administer ; we will not undervalue the blessed and 
Divine consolation and means of assured recovery of penitents, 
which we so lightly and with so much confidence disuse. Yet 
we have still our blessed means of Divine grace in the Holy 
Communion. We have still our own separate access to the 
Father in Christ the well-beloved. We have still the joint 
prayers and general absolutions of our public services. We 
have still the offer (oh ! that we would think of it more 
readily, and use it oftener) of the benefit of private absolution, 
together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quieting of 
conscience. The remaining privileges of the Church may have 
been withdrawn from us for our sins. It will certainly be by 
humbly and carefully using those which we possess, that we 
may hope for their restoration to us. 

There is another Saying, of very high importance, which 
properly belongs to this part of the subject, as conveying, 
without question, power in the Church, and therefore belong- 
ing to the Apostles as rulers, and not merely as representa- 
tives of all their brethren. This is the thrice-repeated charge 
to St. Peter to feed the flock of Christ. " Simon, son of 
Jonas, lovest thou me more than these V- (more than these 
thine ancient occupations, thy nets, thy boat, thy sea ? more 
than these thy brethren love me ?) " Feed my lambs. Simon, 
son of J onas, lovest thou me ? Feed my sheep. Simon, son 
of Jonas, lovest thou me ? Feed my sheep." 7 In this affect- 
7 St. John xvi. 16—17. 



106 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



ing commission we do not doubt that a power is given over 
the flock of Christ ; a power in which the sheep of the flock 
can of course have no share ; a power to tend, to feed, to lead 
forth into pasture, to keep within the fold, to guard from 
dangers within and without ; to check, to teach, to govern. 
The sheep or lambs of the flock are the ordinary lay mem- 
bers of the Church, both old and young. They are called a 
flock from their tenderness, their defencelessness, their liability 
to wander, their obedience, and the gentle loving care with 
which they are regarded by their Shepherd. The pastors, or 
shepherds, are they who hold under the great Shepherd His 
delegated power; His under-shepherds, who tend by His 
authority ; so that He tends in them, and is obeyed or dis- 
obeyed in them. 

The Old Testament Scriptures are replete with promises and 
types of the Lord in the character of the good Shepherd, and 
of His Christian people as His sheep. So numerous, indeed, 
are the places in which this sort of language is used, as to be 
quite beyond exhausting by quotation. In the descent of 
J acob into Egypt, Joseph was the type of the true Shepherd ; 
for he " nourished his Father and his brethren, and all his 
father's household, with bread according to their families," 8 
and to him belongs, in some unexplained way, the name of 
" the Shepherd." In the wandering in the wilderness, between 
the passage of the Red Sea and the reaching of the land of 
Canaan (a wandering typical of the life of Christians between 
Baptism and Paradise,) God was again His people's Shepherd, 
and Moses and Aaron His typical under-shepherds. "He 
made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them 
in the wilderness like a flock." 9 " He led his people like a 
flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." 1 In the constant 
government of the chosen nation, He was the Shepherd of 
Israel, tending by under-shepherds. He sought those who 



8 Gen. xlvii. 12 ; xlv. 10. Cf. xlix. 24. Ps. lxxx. 1. 

9 Ps. lxxviii. 52. 1 Ibid, lxxvii. 20. 



m.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



107 



went " astray like lost sheep He made His flock a not 
want, but made them to lie down in green pastures, and led 
them forth beside the waters of comfort." 

In several passages, again, in which there can be no ques- 
tion that the language used is strictly prophetical, and not 
metaphorical only, we read of the coming Messiah, that " He 
shall feed his flock like a shepherd : he shall gather the lambs 
with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently 
lead those that are with young/' 3 In the same way the 
Prophet Ezekiel, after denouncing the displeasure of God 
against the neglectful under-shepherds of Israel, goes on to 
prophesy the coming of a truer and better shepherd. " For 
thus saith the Lord God : Behold I, even I, will both search 
my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his 
flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered ; 
so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all 
places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark 
day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather 
them from the countries, and will bring them to their own 
land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, 
and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed 
them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of 
Israel shall their fold be : there shall they lie in a good fold, 
and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of 
Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie 

down, saith the Lord God And I will set up one 

shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant 
David : he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd/' 4 
The Prophet Jeremiah speaks of many shepherds. " And I 
will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed 
you with knowledge and understanding/' " I will gather the 
remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven 
them, and will bring them again to their folds : and they shall 



2 Ibid. cxix. 176 ; xxiii. 2. 5 Ip. xl. 2. 

4 Ezek. xxxiv. 11 — 23 ; xxxvii.24. 



108 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over 
them which shall feed them : and they shall fear no more, nor 
be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord." 5 

In our Lord's own teaching in the G-ospels, the parable of 
the lost sheep 6 (introduced in St. Matthew in connexion with 
the Son of Man being come to save that which was lost) 
plainly connects itself, in the way of more immediate anticipa- 
tion, with the language of the passages just cited from the 
Old Testament. 

But by far the most remarkable passage of the Gospels 
bearing upon this point is the discourse of the tenth chapter 
of St. John. 

This discourse opens, apparently, in connexion with the 
conversation and miracle of the preceding chapter. The 
Pharisees, still sitting 7 in Moses' seat, asked the Lord if they 
also were blind ; blind, that is, as guides of the people. The 
Lord answers, that if they were really blind, blind without the 
means or power of sight, and without professing to see, they 
would be guiltless; but, claiming to see, pretending to be 
guides, whilst in reality they were blind leaders of the blind, 
and so pronouncing, as if authoritatively, against His mission 
and teaching, their sin remained. He then goes on to dis- 
tinguish a true guide from a false one ; or (introducing with 
the beginning of the tenth chapter the old scriptural language 
of a shepherd and sheep), a shepherd from a robber. In the 
first five verses of the chapter He describes a shepherd. 8 A 
shepherd differs from a robber, because he enters into the fold 
by the door. So entering, he obtains several other marks of 
his being a true shepherd : the porter opens ; the sheep here 
his voice j he -calls his own sheep by name ; he leads them 
out ; he goes before them ; the sheep follow him because they 

5 Jer. iii. 15 ; xxiii. 3, 4. 

6 St. Matt, xviii. 11, 12. St. Luke xv. 4. 

7 St. Matt, xxiii. 2. 

S HOC/X'/jv, not 7tOlfXYlV' 



III.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



109 



know his voice. "Tecta sunt hsec," says St. Augustine, 
" plena qusestionibus, gravida sacranientis." 9 

Of whom then does our Lord speak this parable ? Of Him- 
self, personally and alone, or of Himself and others ? There 
cannot be a doubt that He speaks, at least in part, of Himself. 
For, to all appearance, His very purpose is to distinguish His 
own guidance from the blind guidance of the Pharisees, and 
to declare that whereas all before Him were thieves and rob- 
bers, He is a true guide and a real shepherd. If, then, these 
verses are to be interpreted of Himself alone, and interpreted 
by themselves, without reference to what follows, then perhaps 
(according to St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, and Theophy- 
lact,) 1 the Door is the Old Testament, the Porter the Holy 
G-host who inspired it, or Moses, (for had they believed Moses, 
they would have believed Christ,) 3 and the sheep those true 
Israelites who received Him, and believed on Him. 

But if these verses are to be interpreted with respect to 
what follows (and indeed their own structure appears to sug- 
gest this interpretation,) then our Lord is probably not speak- 
ing exclusively of Himself, or of the pastoral office as confined 
to a single holder. To that subject He seems to proceed in 
the 11th verse. Hitherto He seems rather to be giving the 
marks of a good shepherd, and the marks appear capable of 
designating, in a subordinate way, others besides Himself. 
Any who enter by the Door possess the first great characteristic 
of a shepherd. 

But in the next verse He says, " Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, I am the Door of the sheep." 

How/ then, it occurs to ask, can Christ Himself be the 

9 S. Augtist. Tract, in S. Joan. 

1 S. August. Tract, xlv. xlvi. xlvii. in Joh. Ev. Theophyl. S. Chrys. 
in loco. v. Maldonati Comm. in Joan. c. x. 

2 St. John v. 46. 

3 Numquidnam ipse venit ad semetipsum ? An ita est, quia in Evan- 
gelio ipse testatur, dicens : Qui non intrat per ostium in ovile ovium, sed 
ascendit aliunde, ilk fur est et latro ?. Qui autem intrat per ostium, pastor 

10 



110 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



Door by which He singly, and in His own separate Person, 
hath entered ? This also seems capable of a satisfactory 
answer. Because He entereth of His own authority. As He 
layeth down His own life, and taketh it again ; as He is the 
Way, as well as the Guide; as He is the author and the 
finisher, the beginning and end, the source and the perfection 
of all power and blessing to His people ; as He opened the 
way to Heaven, trod it first, and became it to His followers, 
so He is the door into the fold, by which He Himself entered. 
Or again, when Christ entereth in by Himself, the door, the 
word Christ may stand, as often in other parts of Scripture, 
for His Church, and specifically for His under-shepherds. 
This is the interpretation of St. G-regory. 

Or if all these verses be, as is above suggested, rightly 
interpreted of other shepherds, in a subordinate way, besides 
Himself, then the passage signifies that all who enter by 
Him, 4 enter duly into the fold, and are true and good shep- 
herds. He enters first and chiefly (whether by the door of 
ancient Scripture, or by Himself, need not for our present 
purpose be discussed ;) others by Him, the door. 

est avium. Et pauld post dicit, Ego sum ostium. Atque iterum subjungit, 
Ego sum pastor bonus. Si ergo pastor intrat per ostium, et ipse est ostium, 
ipse pastor : ipse proculdubio intrat per semetipsum. Ecce, dum Eze- 
chielis sensum enodare cupimus, de Evangelio etiam qusestionem ligamus. 
Quasrendurn nobis itaque est qualiter et ipse intret : et per semetipsum 
intret. Dominus enim ac Eedemtor noster, cum sancta Ecclesia quam 
redemit, secundum carnem una substantia est, Paulo attestante, qui ait, 
Adimpleo ea quce desunt passiontim Ckristi in came mea pro corpore ejus , 
quod est Ecclesia. Gum ergo electi quique ad vitam perveniunt, quia 
membra ejus per earn intrant ad eum, ipse per se intrat ad se. Ipse enim 
in suis membris est qui intrat, ipse caput ad quod intrantia membra perve- 
niunt. — S. Gregor. Magn. Horn. iii. lib. ii. in Ezecb. (cf. Horn, i.) 

4 KaXoi xai ot Ugsi? xpslosov 8s 6 d^tfgsiij 6 Ttsrii6'tsvpLSvo$ to- 
aytct ncdv ayccoy, oj (Ctwoj TiS7iia'tsv'tav ta xpvrita toy ®sov' avtbf wi> 
6v£a tov rtar'gos', 6V rtf sWs^xovtai 'AjSpaa^, xai 'laaax xai 'laxw/3, 
xai oi rtgo^jJz'OM-, xai ol artoWoTioi,, xai r t ixxhyoia' 7iavXa taZta sif 
svotYirrt, &sov. — S. Ignat. ad Phil. ix. 



III.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



Ill 



But in the eleventh verse He adds another most important 
particular to the pastoral doctrine, " I am the good Shepherd." 
In these words there can he no doubt that He speaks of a 
single shepherd. Whatever other persons may have of other- 
or derived pastoral powers, He says of Himself, that He is 
" the good Shepherd." Others enter by Him, the door j but 
they only enter by Himself into Himself ; for He is both 
Door and Shepherd ; each alone, and each perfectly ; the only 
door, and the only shepherd of original, plenary, underived 
power, whose own the sheep are, and in whom all the signs 
of a shepherd do fully and perfectly meet. 

There is a further obscurity about these important verses^ 
which it is well to notice, though it does not bear directly on 
the present argument. In the first verses, entering in by the 
door is said of shepherds ; in the ninth verse it seems rather 
to be said of the sheep. It is the shepherds who, in the be- 
ginning of the passage, are contradistinguished from thieves 
and robbers, whereas the going in and out and finding pasture 
of the later verses appear to belong (according to the expres- 
sions so common in the Old Testament) to the sheep of 
Christ's flock. 

On the whole, then, this passage furnishes a remarkable 
instance of our Lord's frequent manner of teaching in the 
Gospels. He begins by a statement of a less precise and 
determinate kind, — a statement which may seem in some 
cases metaphorical or figurative in expression, in others vague 
or uncertain in application; — when this statement excites 
wonder or opposition, He does not withdraw or modify it, 
but adds some striking, and, as it were, more paradoxical 
point of doctrine, which identifies, if I may so speak, and 
particularizes the meaning of the earlier statements. In some 
cases, as here and in the 6th of St. John, Pie goes on to add 
a second particular of the same kind, which has the effect of 
increasing the apparent paradox, but meanwhile of perfecting 
the statement of the mystery which He is revealing. There 



112 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC 



can, therefore, be little doubt of the general doctrine of this 
signal passage. Christ is the single shepherd, whom ancient 
prophecy designated, and to whom the sheep of God are com- 
mitted as His own. Others may enter into a portion of the 
pastoral office (nay, He also enters) by Himself, the door. 
Herein are the signs to be found, which distinguish the true 
shepherds from the thieves and robbers. And perhaps it may 
be stated generally, in the way of a rule of interpretation, that 
those discourses 5 of Christ which are formed upon the model 
above described, are to be doctrinally interpreted in the re- 
verse direction. The statements which He reaches last, are 
in each case the first principles of the mysterious doctrine. 

Some part of the great pastoral office to which He was thus 
designated by ancient prophecy, and His own Divine words, 
our Blessed Lord discharged while He remained on earth in 
the flesh; pitying, tending, feeding, loving those who had 
been as sheep having no shepherd ; and above all, exhibiting 
that greatest token of the good shepherd, the laying down of 
His life for the sheep. 6 But when He had done this, and, 
having now risen from the grave, was about to ascend where 
He was before, He left behind Him in the great Saying which 
we are now considering, the institution of a pastoral succession 
to the end of the world. Thus, ascended, He feeds His flock. 
Thus, ascended, he feeds those who having never seen Him 
in the flesh, " hear his voice" through the voice of His priests; 
are called "by name" by the commissioned calling of His 
priests ; " follow and know Him/' 7 because they see Him and 
acknowledge Him in His appointed priests : not relinquishing 
the care of them to hirelings whose own the sheep are not, 
but bidding and empowering St. Peter and the rest of the 
Apostles 8 to feed and guide them for Him, with Him, and in 
Him. 

5 Cf. St. John iii. 3—5 ; vi. 27, 33, 35, 41, 51, 53. 

6 St. John x. 11. 7 Ibid. x. 3, 4. 

8 Cum dicitur Petro, ad omnes dicitur, Pasce oves meas. — S. Aug. de 
Agone Christi, 30 (quoted by Barrow on the Pope's Supremacy.) 



III.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



113 



And so the inspired Apostles in later times do comment 
upon this sacred Saying, nothing doubting that though they 
held under the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls, 9 yet to 
them also is committed the true pastoral charge of tending 
the flock of Christ. So speaks St. Peter, the original receiver 
of the pastoral commission. " The elders which are among 
you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the suf- 
ferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall 
be revealed : feed the flock of God which is among you, taking 
the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly ; not 
for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords 
over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And 
when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a 
crown of glory that fadeth not away." 1 And St. Paul, ad- 
dressing the Ephesian elders, " Take heed, therefore, unto 
yourselves and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost 
hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God which 
he hath purchased with his own blood." 2 

Nor must it be forgotten, 3 while we speak of the pastoral 
commission as thus given by our Lord, that it is made to rest 
wholly upon the love of Him. Lovest thou me ? Lovest 
thou me more than these ? more than these men love me ? 
more than the beloved Apostle ? more than thou lovest these 
things ? more than thou lovest the world, its occupations, 
pleasures, ambitions, distinctions, honours? Then feed my 
sheep. Then enter into the fold, a shepherd of the sheep, 
through Me, who am the Door. Feed them which are Mine, 
and love them because they are Mine. Feed them in Me, 
and I will feed them in thee. Hast thou true love of Christ, 
and, for His sake, a heart enlarged, 4 an heart to live or lay 
down thy life for the sheep ? Then mayest thou not be unfit 
to receive a portion in that apostolic inheritance which, first 

9 1 St. Pet. ii. 5. 1 Ibid. v. 1—4. 

* Acts xx. 28. 3 V. Appendix, on the Pastoral Office. 

4 2 Cor. vi. 11 ; vii. 3. 

10* 



114 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



given to St. Peter, has from him and his brethren descended 
to God's priests, by the Holy Ghost, in every age of the 
Church, to be in thy degree a shepherd of men's souls. The 
power of the keys had been given as the Divine reward of a 
divinely implanted faith ; the pastoral power is attached as a 
sacred gift to love. 5 

This great Saying of the forty days was addressed indivi- 
dually to St. Peter, and as far as the words declare, appears 
to be said to him alone. For whereas the baptismal commis- 
sion is expressed in the plural, and the power of absolution is 
conferred by the breath and words of Christ upon the whole 
body of the Apostles, the words of this Saying are conveyed 
in the singular number, and appear therefore, at the first 
sight, to belong to St. Peter alone. 

Do they then convey the pastoral power to St. Peter only ? 
or to St. Peter above the other Apostles ? or to all the 
Apostles equally ? 

This is a most important question : important in itself, as 
involving some of the great principles of the kingdom of 
heaven, and important in its consequences, as containing the 
great point of the difference which severs the west of Christ- 
endom ; but on the principles of interpretation which we have 
hitherto pursued, it is not a difficult question. 

In order to evade the pressure of the prima facie argument 
of St. Peter's pastoral supremacy, derived from these words, 
it is sometimes maintained that they are to be explained as 
words of exhortation merely, not of ordination. It is thought 
that the Apostolic powers having been fully given in other 
words and at other times, St. Peter is here only admonished 
and exhorted by the Lord to the earnest, pastoral exercise of 
them. There is, no doubt, much force in this argument; for 
if the baptizing and absolving powers were really given to all 
the Apostles alike, it is difficult to understand how the pastoral 
ones can be given to St. Peter alone, or above the others. 
5 Origen, Comm. in Ep. ad Bom. lib. v. 



III.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



115 



Whatever the precise powers designated by feeding the sheep 
of - Christ may be, they cannot be conceived to exclude those 
which are unquestionably conveyed in the other Sayings, the 
making disciples, the baptizing, the teaching, the teaching to 
obey the precepts of Christ, the forgiving and retaining of 
sins. Therefore, if the Apostles are equal in the other powers, 
it seems impossible that they can be unequal in this one : and 
it is to be observed, that the argument for St. Peter's superi- 
ority in this one (the verbal argument) is identical with that 
which proves their equality with him in the others. 

Further weight, however, than this it is difficult to assign to 
this answer. For not only are the words of our Lord in these 
sacred days all (as far as their form goes) apparently enact- 
ing, and not only hortatory words (and even if this be doubt- 
ful, it is at least very bold to pronounce confidently that some 
are enacting and others not so,) but also, these particular 
words have, not less, perhaps more than others, the appear- 
ance of words of ordination. Thrice spoken, and spoken even 
to the grief of St. Peter, they certainly bear a 'prima facie sem- 
blance of oonveying powers, and this prima facie semblance, 
particularly when combined with the general character of the 
Sayings of these days, seems to be sufficient to put aside what 
cannot be more than a mere assumption, that while the neigh- 
bouring words all convey powers, these only contain an exhorta- 
tion, add to which that an exhortation is itself an ordination, 
when uttered by One possessed of plenary and original powers. 

It cannot, then, be well denied, that the first aspect of these 
famous words appears to put St. Peter into a position of such 
eminence amongst his brethren the Apostles, as to suggest 
the idea that the Pastoral Office belongs, by the Lord's gift, 
to him alone, and is derived from him to the others. 

Why then do we come to the very opposite conclusion, and 
hold that the Apostles are, in all Apostolical powers what- 
ever, and the Pastoral among the rest, entirely equal and 
independent of one another ? 



116 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



Let the argument already stated stand for the first answer 
to this question. They who are equal in power to make dis- 
ciples, to baptize, to teach obedience, to absolve from sin, and 
to retain sins, cannot be conceived to be unequal in those 
other powers, if they be others, or whatever precise ones they 
are supposed to be, which are conveyed in the pastoral com- 
mission. 

But the real answer to the question asked above is this. 
When we turn to the Apostolic commentary upon these sacred 
Sayings contained in the later Scriptures, a commentary from 
which (as has been shown above) we derive the undeniable 
and inspired record of the meaning in which the Lord spake 
them, and the holy Apostles, under the Spirit of knowledge 
and power, understood and administered them, we find a com- 
plete and final proof of the equality of the Apostles in all 
Apostolic powers, and a disproof of any personal superiority 
of St. Peter, even in any such peculiar powers as may be 
esteemed specifically pastoral. It is impossible that this argu- 
ment can be stated too strongly. There is not, from one end 
to the other of the Apostolical Epistles, a verse or word that 
can be (I might almost add, that has been) tortured into 
proving or supporting the pastoral supremacy of St. Peter. 
There are, meanwhile, many words and passages, and recorded 
acts, which do most distinctly disprove it. If, then, the rela- 
tion of the later to the earlier Scriptures, and of both to these 
great Sayings, described in a former discourse, (wherein the 
earlier Scriptures are represented to stand as an anticipation 
of the Church, these great Sayings as the enactment and 
institution of it, and the later Apostolic writings as the inspired 
commentary upon the Sayings, and record of the manner in 
which, under the Holy Spirit, they were acted out,) if this 
relation be in any degree true and real, and if (as is now 
asserted) the supposed pastoral supremacy of St. Peter is not 
only absolutely unknown to that commentary and record, but 
directly contradicted by it, it is difficult to conceive that any 



ra.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



117 



other considerations can be adduced capable of balancing the 
weight of an argument in its own nature so final and con- 
vincing. And, in fact, every other consideration does only 
strengthen and confirm the conclusion to which the later 
Scriptures thus decisively lead us. 

For example, in the account of the council of the Church 
held at J erusalem, as recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the 
Acts, " the Apostles and Elders" are repeatedly mentioned, 
without any indication of a supremacy of pastoral power 
exercised by one among them. St. Peter, indeed, spoke, 
after there had been much disputing, with the weight that 
belonged to so eminent an Apostle, and alleged his claim to 
be heard among them, not on the ground of supremacy of any 
kind, but as having been the one by whose mouth G-od had 
chosen that the Gentiles should hear the word of the G-ospel, 
and believe. Then, after the narrative of St. Paul and St. 
Barnabas had been heard, and they had held their peace, St. 
James 6 (holding, as ancient tradition uniformly declares, the 
office of Bishop of Jerusalem) ansivered, 7 and gave, to all 
appearance, the se?itence, in pursuance of which the letter was 
written, in the name of the Apostles, and Elders, and Brethren, 
to all the Churches. If any person wishes to judge of the 
weight of this argument, let him imagine a council held in 
the later ages of the Church, at which the Pope and eleven 
Bishops should be present, and among them the local Bishop 
of the city in which the council was held, and consider how 
far the papal claims would be satisfied by the modest and equal 
demeanor of St. Peter in the council of Jerusalem. 

Again ; to take the instance of St. Paul, it is hardly possi- 
ble that any argument can be fuller, or more satisfactory than 
that which proves, from the later Scriptures, his full Apos- 
tolical equality with St. Peter. 8 

6 Acts xv. 19. 7 artsxplOt^ — Sib lyw xgwa. 
8 Nec Paulus inferior Petro — cum prirno quoque conferendus, et nulli 
secuadus. — S. Arnbros. de Sp. S. ii. 12. -ti .yap ntVpoy fxei^ov ; %l §s 



118 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



A youthful Pharisee, exceedingly zealous of God, and verily 
thinking with himself that he ought to do many things con- 
trary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, is suddenly, in the 
midst of a journey of persecution, struck to the earth by the 
light and voice of God. Blinded by the vision of that Just 
One whom he had seen, and the voice of whose mouth he had 
heard, he is led by the hand of them that were with him, and 
brought into Damascus. There he is restored to sight, and 
receives holy baptism, for the remission of his sins, from the 
hands of Ananias ; and with it an announcement of his desti- 
nation to be a witness unto all men of what he had seen and 
heard. Immediately he confers not with flesh and blood, nor 
goes up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before him, 
but goes into Arabia, and thence returns unto Damascus. 
After three years spent, apparently at Damascus, in preaching 
Christ in the synagogues that He is the Son of God, he goes 
up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abides with him fifteen 
days, but sees none other of the Apostles save James the 
bishop, the Lord's brother. In this visit he has wonderful 
revelations of God in the Temple, and again receives the pro- 
mise of a mission amongst the Gentiles. 9 

Did St. Paul then, thus converted, baptized, and designated 
as an Apostle, derive authority, or in any manner hold under 
or by St. Peter his pastoral oflice as an Apostle ? Nay, we 
have his own authority for saying, that he was u an Apostle, 
not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God 
the Father, who raised him from the dead f' 1 and he " was 
separated from his mother's womb, and God had called him 
by his grace to reveal his Son in him, that he might preach 
him among the Gentiles." Or did he, in his visit of fifteen 
days to Jerusalem to see Peter, receive the pastoral powers of 
an Apostle, which he then proceeded to exercise in other 

Uav%ov loop ; S. Chrys. t. v. Or. 167 (quoted by Barrow on the Pope's 
Supr. vii. 64). 

9 2 Cor. xii. 2. Acts xxii. 21. 1 Gal. i. 1. 



III.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



119 



lands ? But not a word to such effect is to be found in any 
part of the Holy Scriptures. Add to which, that his subse- 
quent words and acts towards St. Peter wholly disprove such 
a supposition ; and that he did receive a special outward call 
to that very Apostolic office to which he had before been 
designated by the Holy Ghost, but not either mediately or 
immediately from St. Peter. For as certain prophets 2 and 
teachers ministered to the Lord and fasted, at Antioch, the 
Holy Ghost said, " Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the 
work whereunto I have called them. And when they had 
fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent 
them away." 

The very singularity, and, if it may be so called, uniqueness 
of this consecration, disproves all idea of authority derived 
from St. Peter, or subordinate to him. An Apostle is con- 
secrated, not by Apostles, but by Prophets and Teachers. 
They who have no ordinary commission to ordain even subordi- 
nate ministers, much less Apostles, are by a special commis- 
sion of the Holy Ghost empowered to separate by imposition 
of hands two men to the Apostolic work and office. Did St. 
Paul by this commission receive only those other Apostolic 
powers (whatever they may be) without the Pastoral? Nay, 
but we find him ordaining 3 elders in every city, and reminding 
those whom he has himself ordained, of their pastoral duty of 
feeding the flock of God, over which the Holy Ghost (no 
doubt by the imposition of his hands) had made them 
overseers. 

However, fourteen years after his former visit to Jerusalem, 
after having preached, ordained, and exercised, as far as can 
be known, every office of the Apostolate, he went up again to 
Jerusalem; and there he "communicated unto them that 
Gospel which he preached among the Gentiles, but privately 
to them which were of reputation, lest by any means he should 



2 Acts xiii. 1, 2. 



3 Acts xx. 28 ; xiv. 23. 



120 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



run, or had run, in vain." 4 Did St. Paul, then, in this " com- 
munication/ 7 made after so long exercise of the Apostolic 
office, respecting which he expresses himself thus humbly, did 
he then receive from St. Peter any derivation of power, or 
authorization of the exercise of it, such as would show that 
St. Peter was the original and single holder, under Christ, of 
the pastoral powers ? The verses which follow in the second 
chapter to the Galatians, finally disprove any such supposi- 
tion. He not only, even then, maintained with much force 
the Gospel liberty against certain false brethren, but speaks 
thus of himself in respect of the position in which he stood 
to St. Peter and the other Apostles. "But of those who 
seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no 
matter to me. God accepteth no man's person : for they who 
seemed to be somewhat, in conference added nothing to me. 
But contrariwise, when they saw that the Gospel of the un- 
circumsion was committed unto me, as the G-ospel of the 
circumcision was unto Peter (for he that wrought effectually 
in Peter to the Apostleship of the circumcision, the same was 
mighty in me toward the Gentiles) ; and when J ames, Cephas, 
and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that 
was given unto me, they gave^to me and Barnabas the right 
hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and 
they unto the circumcision." 5 Thus his equal Apostleship 
with St. Peter was expressly recognized 6 by St. Peter and the 
other leading Apostles; and the right hands of fellowship 
signified their acknowledgment that he was, even as they, one 
of the equal and duly commissioned Apostolic witnesses of the 
Lord's resurrection. 

Very shortly afterwards appears to have come the visit of 
St. Peter to Antioch, when, as if to leave on record to the last 

4 Gal. ii. 2. 5 Gal. ii. 6—9. 

6 xal bdxvvGiv avtol$ ofAottfiov ovta ~kot,7tbv, xai ov toi$ d'hote, aM.a 
xo^vtyaiq ovyxpivsc, 8sixvv$ on trfi vwtrfi exaato$ (WxauGi^ u^ia^. — 
S. Chrysost. Horn, in Gal. 



m.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



121 



ages of the Church the true independent Apostolicity of St. 
Paul, and to fix the limits of St. Peter's personal privileges, 
the Holy Ghost has written how St. Paul publicly withstood 
him to the face, because he was to be blamed. " But when 
Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, be- 
cause he was to be blamed. For before that certain came 
from J ames, he did eat with the Gentiles : but when they 
were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them 
which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dis- 
sembled likewise with him ; insomuch that Barnabas also was 
carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that 
they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, 
I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest 
after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why 
compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews ?" 7 This 
narrative appears to put in the clearest possible light the com- 
plete Apostolic equality of these two Apostles. It cannot be 
that St. Paul was in any point inferior to St. Peter, if he was 
at liberty to act and judge independently of him, and in the 
holy confidence of that judgment to rebuke him before all. 
And what powers that St. Peter had not, can the successor of 
St. Peter have derived from him ? How should not a succes- 
sor of St. Paul, a Bishop duly consecrated to his office by the 
successive laying on of Apostolic hands from St. Paul, have 
like liberty to maintain the purity of Apostolic Truth ? And 
if the successor of St. Peter, unlike his meek and faithful 
predecessor, should maintain himself in error, and vindicate a 
claim of infallible truth and supreme authority which he never 
inherited, how should not the successor of St. Paul be guilt- 
less, in submitting, with meek regret, and many prayers for 
peace, even to be driven from his communion ? 

It is hardly necessary to add further proof from the Epis- 
tles of the entire Apostolic equality of St. Paul with St. 
Peter. If further evidence be needed, it is abundantly sup- 
' Gal. ii. n— 14'. 



122 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



plied in many statements of St. Paul, speaking of himself, and 
magnifying, not beyond the letter of the sacred warrant, his 
divine office : " For I suppose I was not a whit behind the 
very chiefest Apostles." 8 " For in nothing am I behind the 
very chiefest Apostles, though I be nothing." 9 

But again, the Churches founded by St. Paul, though com- 
municating in prayers, and alms, and all kinds of Christian 
sympathy and love with other Christian Churches, appear, as 
far as Scriptural evidence can be brought to bear upon the 
point, to have been founded, governed, and addressed by this 
Apostle without the smallest reference to any personal claim 
of pastoral superiority in St. Peter. It is difficult to establish 
a negative point of this kind by quotations. But it may be 
most strongly stated, without fear of contradiction, that 
whether we examine, from the evidence of the Epistles, the 
state of the Corinthian, G-alatian, Ephesian, Thessalonian, 
Colossian, or even the Roman Church, in respect of the pas- 
toral and Apostolic authority which they were taught to 
acknowledge, there is not a word or syllable which can, even 
in the most indirect way, give countenance to the idea of their 
owing to St. Peter personally any such submission as would 
have been due from them, if he could have claimed the pas- 
toral superintendence of Christendom. In the two Epistles to 
the Corinthians, particularly, and the Epistle to the Galatians, 
the manner in which St. Paul vindicates his own Apostoli ? 
and equal authority completely negatives all thought of the, >- 
being taught to look, through him, to another Apostle as the 
depository of pastoral authority. 1 " If he be not an Apostle 
to others" 3 (the argument is strictly ad homines,) he is so to 

8 The metrical arrangement of this important verse may cause it to be 
the better remembered : 

9 2 Cor. xi. 5 ; xii. 11, 12. 

1 S. Clem. Rom. ad Cor. xlvii. 2 1 Cor. ix. 2. 



III.] PASTORAL COMMISSION. 123 

them. " They are the seal of his Apostleship in the Lord." 
If, again, some of them did say, " I am of Paul ; and I of 
Apollos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of Christ St. Paul rebuked 
this unchristian spirit by replying, " Who then is Paul, and 
who Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the 
Lord gave to every man ? I have planted, Apollos watered ; 
but God gave the increase." 3 And, then, giving the true ac- 
count of the building 4 of the Christian Church, how that " other 
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is 
Jesus Christ," he adds, " Therefore let no man glory in man. 
For all things are yours ) whether Paul, or Apollos, or Ce- 
phas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things 
to come ) all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is 
God's." The Churches founded by St. Paul are taught by 
him to look to himself as their Apostle, and through him to 
Christ. The notion of a further subjection due from them to 
another See, another Bishop, or another Apostle, is entirely 
absent from his Epistles. On the contrary, he particularly 
states that he has striven to preach the Gospel where Christ 
was not named, " lest he should build on another man's foun- 
dation ;" 5 * that " as a wise master-builder he has laid the 
foundation ;" 6 that he does not " stretch himself beyond his 
measure," " to boast in another man's line of things made 
ready to his hand." 7 

Planted by him, then, taught by him, baptized under his 
direction, ruled by him, receiving their several bishops from 
him, addressed in long written letters by him, which very 
letters form great part of the commentary of the Spirit upon 
the powers and constitution of the Church, how should it be 
conceivable that these Churches owed to St. Peter (earnest, 

3 1 Cor. iii. 5. 6, 

4 Compare St. Matt. xvi. 16, with 1 Cor. iii. 11, and Eph. ii. 20. 

5 Kom. xv. 20. 6 1 Cor. iii. 10. 7 2 Cor. x. 14, 16. 

* Compare Acts xvi. 6, 7. St. Paul is not permitted to go into Bithynia, 
Was it not because it was Peter's jurisdiction ? See 1 Peter, i. 1. 



124 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



faithful, and loving as lie was, yet still the Apostle of the cir- 
cumcision, and openlyrebuked by St. Paul) a subjection un- 
known to the Apostolic Epistles, and contradicted, directly or 
indirectly, by many passages in them ? 

And so, if Churches founded by St. Peter had, in the course 
of ages, and in consequence of that frailty of man which led 
St. Peter himself astray at Antioch, become involved in error 
of faith and practice, — an error in which they should persist 
after remonstrance, and even drive the remonstrants from their 
communion, — what would have been the duty of the Apos- 
tolic Church of Corinth, what of the Apostolic Church of 
Ephesus, what of the Apostolic Church of Galatia, to which 
St. Paul addressed those remarkable words — " there be some 
that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. 
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other 
Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, 
let him be accursed ;" 8 — what, but to hope, in all brotherli- 
ness of feeling, and earnest sorrow for the disunion of Chris- 
tendom, that the guilt of schism did not lie at their door, that 
they at least had not forfeited the inheritance of Apostolic 
truth, or the succession of Divine grace, nor yet the enlarged 
heart and desire of union which belong to Apostolic love ? 

3. Again ) when we look into the Gospels, and examine 
the passages which speak in anticipation of the Church and its 
constitution in these respects, it is impossible to deny that 
there are several which seem to portend some kind of emi- 
nency or superiority of St. Peter above the other Apostles. 
These passages we believe to have their fulfilment in that ac- 
knowledged eminency of order which has at all times been 
accorded to St. Peter; an eminency, wholly disjoined from 
any superiority of Apostolic powers, or any headship or 
primacy of authority in the Church, which is exhibited in his 
having been the Apostle selected of God to baptize the first 
Gentile convert, in his being confessedly an eminent pillar of 
s Gal. i. 8. 



III.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



125 



the Church, in his being made, at different times, the pattern 
of Faith and Love to all his brethren, whom after his own 
conversion, he should help to strengthen. 

There are other passages, however, bearing upon the con- 
stitution of the Church, which appear to be imcompatible 
with the idea of any primacy of authority or power to be ex- 
exercised by one Apostle over his brethren. Such is that 
passage, already referred to, from the 29th chapter of St. 
Matthew : " And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, 
That ye which have followed me, in the Regeneration when 
the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also 
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel." 9 In this passage it is immaterial to the present pur- 
pose how the phrase " the Regeneration" is interpreted : 
whether it signifies the present condition of things, the mili- 
tant kingdom, in which regeneration of souls is given in the 
Church, or the future and glorious kingdom, when the bodies 
of men shall be raised from the graves, which is more com- 
monly called Resurrection. For in either case, it is the 
equality of the Apostolic Thrones which it is important to 
observe. There is One Throne above all, and twelve below 
it. We do not hear of one of these twelve raised above the 
others. The twelve thrones are spoken of as equal. The apex 
of the pyramid of Church authority, if I may use such a 
figure, is out. of sight. Clouds and darkness surround it. ' It 
is the Ascended Lord, invisible, but ever present, the single 
source and summit of all power and blessing. But where 
human eyes can reach, there is no single summit. Where 
the cloud begins, we see twelve ; twelve of equal delegated 
power, to whom certain words are said in one, that they may 
know that Christ designed them to be all one in Him. 

Again, in the signal passage, already more than once re- 
ferred to, of the 18th of St. Matthew, where the Lord pro- 

9 St. Matt. xix. 28. cf. Rev. xxi. 14. v. Hammond on att. xvi. 
19. 

11* 



126 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



mises to the whole Church the powers which in the 16th 
chapter had seemed to be promised exclusively to St. Peter. 
He seems (in pursuance of that method of discourse which 
has been observed above) to lay down in the concluding 
verses the principle of all those powers and blessings in the 
Church which He had been speaking of. Not only whatso- 
ever they bound on earth should be bound in Heaven, and 
whatsoever they loosed on earth should be loosed in heaven, 
but also any prayer offered by more than one of them, together, 
upon earth, should be done for them by their Father in 
Heaven. And why ? What is the assigned principle, and, if 
I may so call it, secret of these wonderful powers and privi- 
leges ? It is this : that " wheresoever two or three have 
been gathered (nwijypivoi) in my name (s£s tb i/xbv bvo/xa), there 
am I in the midst of them." 1 Duly gathered into His name, 
they have the blessing of His presence, and " thereby/' says 
Bishop Pearson, "they become a Church." 2 

Thus this passage seems to give the essential constitution of 
a Church of Cod. It exists, and has its being in the Presence 
of Christ with men. This Presence is not properly with an 
individual, who cannot alone be a Church, but with several. 
When then several have been by Holy Baptism (administered 
by those who under the commission of Christ have been em- 
powered to administer it) gifted with the spiritual life, the 
regeneration of the Holy Ghost, then Christ is there, and 
there is the essential Church. If this be so, then is the being 
of a Church, and its true Apostolic character, not to be sought 
in its subjection to one Apostle or to one see, but in its pos- 

St. Matt, xviii. 15—20. 
2 The latter of these promises giveth not only an assurance of the con- 
tinuance of the Church, but also the cause of that continuance, which 
is the presence of Christ. Where two or three are gathered together in the 
name of Christ, there He is in the midst of them, and thereby they become 
a Church ; for they are as a builded house, and Son within that 
house. — Pearson on the Cr ed, Art. ix. 



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127 



session of that duly " gathered many" upon which depends 
the presence of the Lord, and with that presence the Divine 
Gift of Prayer, and the Absolving Power. 

4. But 3 it may be asked, How should our Lord have said 
words like these to St. Peter, unless He thereby did intend 
to impart peculiar, separate, and so supreme pastoral power to 
him ? 

Let it be first observed, that the words themselves carry no 
exclusion of others. " Pascc oves meas" do in themselves not 
necessarily convey the meaning " do so alone," or " exclu- 
sively of others," or even u pre-eminently above others." 

Again, our Lord did, in the 16th of St. Matthew, give, as 
it were, an exact model of His present form of speech, when 
He said to St. Peter, " Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
earth shall be loosed in heaven." These words were at the 
time addressed to St. Peter alone ; and yet we certainly know 
that they were not intended for St. Peter 4 exclusively of the 
other Apostles; for in, the 18th chapter of the same Gospel 

3 Dean Field on the Church, b. 5, c. 24. " Of the pre-eminence that 
Peter had amongst the Apostles, and the reason why Christ directed His 
speeches specially to him. 

" The reason why, more specially, notwithstanding this His general 
intendment, He directed His speech to Peter, than to any of the rest, was 
either that he was more ancient, and more ardent in charity than the rest, 
— or lest he might seem to be despised for his denial of Christ, — or else 
because he first confessed Christ to be the Son of the living God, — be- 
cause he was much conversant with Christ, — or, lastly, because Christ 
meant there should be a certain order among the guides of His Church, 
and some to whom the rest in all places should resort in all matters of 
importance, as to such as are more honourable than other of the same 
rank and degree, &c." — p. 486. 

4 Quod enim ad ipsum proprie pertiuet, natura unus homo erat, gratia 
unus Christianus, abundantiore gratia unus idemque primus Apostolus : 
sed quando ei dictum est, Tibi dabo claves regni coelorum, &c, uni- 
versam significabat Ecclesiam — quse fundata est super petram, unde 
Petrus nomen habuit. Non enim a Petro petra, sed Petrus a petra — 
Ecclesia ergo quse fundatur in Christo, claves ab eo regni coelorum. accepit 
in Fetro.— -S. Augustin. Trac . Ev. cx v. 



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they are repeated in a promise to the Church \ and in the 
20th of St. John the promised power is given to the Apostles 
without distinction or difference. 

St. Cyril of Alexandria suggests one answer to this question 
which is perfectly consistent with the whole analogy of Scrip- 
tural doctrine. " Why/' he asks, " does He ask Simon only, 
though the other disciples are standing by ? What can the 
words, < Feed my lambs/ and the like, mean to signify ? We 
say, then, that the divine Peter had previously been appointed, 
together with the other disciples, to the divine Apostleship ; 
but when the plot of the Jews was effected, and he fell in 
some measure, (for the divine Peter being seized with great 
fear, thrice denied the Lord,) He heals the disorder, and by 
questions elicits the triple confession, setting this as a com- 
pensation against that, and fitting the restoration as a counter- 
poise to the falls." The writer proceeds, quoting St. Paul 
as an instance of a shepherd devoting himself to the well- 
being of the sheep, and concludes the passage thus : " There- 
fore by means of the triple confession of the blessed Peter, 
the triple offence of his denial was done away ) and through 
the words of the Lord, ' Feed my lambs/ a restoration of the 
previously given Apostleship is understood to have been 
bestowed, which putteth away the reproach of the former falls, 
and extinguish the little-mindedness of human infirmity." 5 

St. Cyprian, in his treatise " de Unitate Ecclesise," alleges 
another reason for the separate address to St. Peter in this 
passage, and the 16th of St. Matthew. " The Lord saith 
unto Peter, ' I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build my Church ; and the gates of hell shall 
not conquer it. And I will give to thee the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall 
be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth 
shall be loosed in heaven/ And again He saith to the same 



5 S. Cyril. Alex, in S. Joan. xxi. ed. Auber, vol. iv. pp. 1118, 1120. 



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PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



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man after the Resurrection. ( Feed my sheep/ He builds 
His Church on one. And although He giveth equal power 
to all the Apostles, and saith, 1 As my Father hath sent me, 
so send I you ;' i Receive the Holy Ghost : if ye shall for- 
give any man's sins, they shall be forgiven him j and if ye 
retain the sins of any, they shall be retained ;' nevertheless, 
to manifest unity, He by His own authority arranged that the 
origin of that unity should begin in one. The other Apostles 
were what Peter was, endowed with an equal participation of 
honour and power, but the beginning proceeds from unity, 
that the Church may be shown to be one." 6 

It may perhaps not be unsuitable to complete the sketch of 
this argument by referring to a few passages of the writings 
of the Fathers of the first three centuries, in order to confirm 
the ancient tradition of the entire equality in all powers and 
rights, not excluding the pastoral, of the whole Apostolic 
College. 

St. Clement of Rome has no passage expressly to the 
point ; but he speaks of the commission of the Apostles from 
Christ, and their ordaining successors, in a way which forms 
a strong negative argument against any supremacy of pastoral 
power in St. Peter. " Christ, therefore, was sent forth from 
God, and the Apostles from Christ." 7 " They therefore ap- 
pointed those before mentioned, and left a continuation of 
succession, in order that if they fell asleep, other approved 
men might succeed to their office." Pie also refers to St. 
Paul's expressions in 1 Cor. i. 10, in language 8 which strongly 
corroborates the inference already drawn from that passage. 9 

6 S. Cyprian, de Unit. Ecclesias, ed. Fell. p. 107. 

7 S. Clem, ad Cor. c. xlii. xai (X£Tfa^v erlwofjiijv fo&ojeacrc, c. xliv. — y. 
Jacobson's note. 

8 c. xlvii. 

9 St. Clement of Rome, in a fragment of very doubtful genuineness, calls 
Peter by the title of 7tgcoi?oxogV'kiuo$. The compound used seems to be- 
long to a more recent date ; but the title of xogti^cu-oj, and many similar 



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The argument from St. Ignatius is also negative, but more 
precise, for he is constantly urging upon the Churches to 
which he writes, the duty of unity, and yet subjection to St. 
Peter is an idea wholly foreign to his genuine Epistles. " As 
then the Lord did nothing without the Father, though He 
were One with Him, neither by Himself, nor by the Apostles, 
so do ye nothing without the Bishop and the Elders." " Be 
subject to the Bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ 
according to the flesh was subject to his Father, 1 and the 
Apostles to Christ and to the Father, and to the Spirit, that 
there may be unity both of the flesh and of the spirit." " Let 
all respect the elders, 2 as the council of God, and the company 
of Apostles." " The Apostles, as the Presbytery of the 
Church." 3 

St. Polycarp furnishes similar negative evidence. He no- 
where hints at St. Peter's pastoral supremacy. The same is 
the case with the narrative of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, 
in which our Lord is called by a name, which in latter ages 
has been too often applied to His Apostle, " the Shepherd of 
the Catholic Church throughout the world." 4 

titles, are often given to the great Apostle by those of whom it is abun 
dantly clear from other passages that they did not intend to attribute 
more than a precedency of honour by such designations. 

1 S. Ignatius, ad Magn. vii. xiii. 

2 ws Gvvidptov deov, xai u>j Gvvdetifxov 'ATtootfoTuou. Trail, hi. 
8 Ad Phil. v. 

The Epistles of St. Ignatius here cited are not of the number of those 
found in the Syriac version recently procured for the British Museum, 
and edited by the Kev. W. Cureton. I only notice this fact for the pur- 
pose of remarking, that for my present purpose (that of estabhshing the 
ancient tradition of the equality of the Apostles) they are even more 
valuable for being, if they be, of more modern date ; whether the absence 
in them of any statement of the supremacy of St. Peter be accounted for 
on the ground that that dogma had not even then appeared in the Church, 
or that the writer adapted his expressions with exact dexterity to the 
manner of speaking in the age of St. Ignatius. 

4 rtot[A,spa fyjs xata "tr^ oixov\f.ivy\v xa9o%oxrji £xx%7]sla$- — S. Polyc. 
Mart. c. xix. 



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PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



131 



Let it be observed that, on a point like this, negative evi- 
dence in all these early writers is really a strong affirmative 
argument. If St. Peter's pastoral supremacy (having, as it 
has, the prima facie support of the words of our Lord) were 
a point so universally acknowledged in the early Church, as 
it must have been if it were true, no hypothesis can be framed 
which will account for the total absence of all mention of it 
from the writings of the Apostles themselves and the Fathers 
of the Apostolic times. But to the negative evidence of the 
writings of St. Polycarp must be added the affirmative evidence 
of his acts. For on the great question of the celebration of 
Easter, on which the Asiatic Churches differed from the 
European, he entirely refused to yield to the authority or 
arguments of Anicetus, Bishop of Rome. " For neither could 
Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to keep that day, inasmuch 
as he had always kept it with J ohn, the disciple of our Lord, 
and the other Apostles with whom he had associated ; nor 
could Polycarp persuade Anicetus to keep it, for he said that 
he was bound to observe the custom of the elders before him." 5 
And throughout that great controversy, which in the days of 
St. Irenaeus had risen to such a height, that Pope Victor 
endeavoured to cut off all the Asiatic Churches from the unity 
of Christendom, 6 the Eastern Bishops held the same sort of 
language as St. Polyearp before them. " For in Asia there 
sleep great men, luminaries of the Church, who shall rise in 
the day of the coming of the Lord, when He cometh with 
glory from heaven, and shall rise all the Saints, Philip one of 
the twelve Apostles, who sleepeth in Hierapolis, and his two 
daughters, who grew old as virgins. And besides, John who 
lay on the bosom of the Lord, who was a Priest, and bore the 

5 S. Irenseus apud Euseb. Hist. v. 24. 

'Erti tovtoo£o fisv r<yjs 'Pufxauiov 7tpo(a-td)$ BiWcog d9 ^oiog tijg 'Acta? 
Ttaaqs afta tfatj o^ogotj ixxhyclLais 'tag 7ia£pixiag (XTtotzfjivtiv 
ttsgoSo^ovoas Tfyjs xoivTqg Ei>wtffios Ttecpatac xai <jtr[kit(vii ys Bid 
yga/Afxdtov dxoivu>vr { tovg itdv-tag ap&qv rovg ixsias dvaxqgvttup dbthfyovg. 
— Euseb. Hist. v. 24. 



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golden plate, 7 and was a martyr and teacher. And also 
Polycarp in Smyrna, a bishop and martyr. And Thraseas, 
bishop and martyr of Euinenia, who sleepth in Smyrna. These 
all kept the day of the fourteenth of the Passover, according 
to the G-ospel, transgressing in nothing, but following the 
canon of the faith. " 8 Thus did the great Bishops of the 
Asiatic Churches trace their independent descent to St. John, 
knowing nothing nor dreaming of any submission due to the 
chair of St. Peter, nor doubting that they, holding fast by 
the faith and order which they had inherited, were true and 
full Apostolical Bishops of the Church of Christ. 

Very little is to be found in the writings of Justin Martyr 
to bear upon the present point. What there is, however, is 
confirmatory of the equality of the Apostles. " After He was 
crucified," he writes in the first Apology, " all His friends 
forsook Him, denying Him. But afterwards, when He had 
risen from the dead, and had been seen by them, and had 
taught them to study the prophecies, in which it had been 
predicted that all these things should come to pass, then 
having seen Him go up into heaven, and having believed, and 
having received power sent by Him from thence, and having 
gone to the whole race of mankind, they taught these things, 
and were called Apostles." 9 Again, in the Dialogue with 
Trypho, he says, " The tradition of twelve bells having been 
hung from the long robe of the High Priest, was a symbol of 
the twelve Apostles appointed by the power of Christ the 
eternal Priest, by whose voice the whole earth was filled with 
the glory and grace of God and of His Christ." 1 

The book of Tertullian, de Prsescriptione Haereticorum, is 
full of passages which indirectly confirm the tradition of the 
equality of the Apostles. He speaks of " the Churches as 

7 V. Kouth. not. in Polycratem. Eel. Sacr. i. 381. 

8 Polycrates apud Euseb. Hist. 1. c. 

9 S. Justin. Mart. Apol. i. § 51, ed. Ben. p. 73. 
Dial, cum Tryphone, Jud. $ 42, p. 138. 



III.] PASTORAL COMMISSION. 133 

receiving all doctrine and truth from the Apostles, the Apos- 
tles from Christ, Christ from God." 2 He says, " Therefore 
so many and great Churches are all that one first Church of 
the Apostles, from which they all descend. Thus all are first 
and all Apostolic, while all are one. Unity is proved by the 
communication of peace, the name of brotherhood, the inter- 
change of hospitality ; rights which no other principle governs, 
but the single tradition of the same Sacrament." 3 And even in 
the passage in which he commemorates the happiness of the 
Roman Church, " where Peter was made equal to the Lord's 
passion, where Paul was crowned with the martyrdom of J ohn, 
where the Apostle John, after suffering no evil from being 
plunged into the fiery oil, was banished to the isle of Patmos/' 
he speaks, indirectly indeed, but very clearly, of the equality 
of the Apostolic Churches in respect of truth and authority. 
" Come then, thou who shalt desire to exercise thy curiosity 
still better in the work of thy salvation. Run over the 
Apostolic Churches, in which the chairs of the Apostles still 
preside in their own places; in which their own authentic 
letters are still read, uttering the voice and representing the 
look of each one of them. Is Achaia near you ? you have 
Corinth. If you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, 
you have the Thessalonians. If you are near to Italy, you 
have Rome, whence we also are within reach of authority." 4 
The testimony of St. Irenasus is in its general spirit and 
effect remarkably like to that of Tertullian. He uses these 
words respecting the thanksgiving of the Church of Jerusalem 
on the release of St. Peter and St. John, recorded in the 
fourth chapter of the Acts : e< These are the words of that 
Church, from which every Church had its beginning j these 
are the words of the metropolis of the citizens of the new 
covenant ; these are the words of the Apostles ; these are the 

2 Tertull. de Prsesc. Hseret. cxxxvii. 

3 c. xx. 

4 c. xxxvi. 

12 



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words of the disciples of the Lord ; of the truly perfect ; of 
those who after the assumption of the Lord were perfected 
by the Spirit." 5 And again, in a chapter directed to prove 
that St. Peter was not inferior to St. Paul, " Peter was an 
Apostle of the same God as Paul; and the same God and 
Son of God whom Peter preached to the Circumcision, Paul 
preached to the Gentiles. For our Lord did not come to 
save Paul only ; nor is God so poor as to have only one Apos- 
tle who should know the dispensation of His Son." And 
in the famous passage of the third book, c. Hsereses, in which 
he magnifies the Roman Church, and speaks of its " potior 8 
principalitas" (expressions which are abundantly explained by 
the natural respect due to the see of the capital city of the 
Roman empire, " founded by the two most glorious Apostles 
Peter and Paul," but entirely inadequate to support the modern 
claims of supreme dominion and infallibility), he plainly 
speaks of the tradition of the Apostles as preserved by the 
succession of Bishops in every city, and proceeds to trace that 
successional tradition in the instances of Rome and Smyrna. 
Thus this passage is precisely similar to the last quoted pas- 
sage from Tertullian, and gives the same testimony to the 
Apostolical descent of many other Churches besides the 
Roman, and their true independent possession of the inherited 
faith. Nor did St. Irenseus, 7 when expostulating, in a synodi- 
cal letter, with Pope Victor against the excommunication of 
Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, and the other Asiatic prelates, 
on the subject of the Easter Fast, seem to give the smallest 
countenance, or even to allude to the existence of any claim 
of supremacy in the successors of St. Peter, to which other 
Bishops were bound to yield. On the contrary, he distinctly 
claims for the Churches the privilege of adhering to the 

5 S. Irenasus, c. User. lib. iii. c. xii. 

6 S. Iren. c. Hsereses, iii. 3, 4. 

7 Eusel). Hist, v. 24. v. Routh, Kel. Sacr. Concilium Lugdunense, vol. 
i. p. 391. 



III.] PASTORAL COMMISSION. 135 

customs which they had inherited from older Bishops, and 
maintains their right to communion in so doing. And ; it 
will be observed, he claimed this privilege for them, even 
though on the particular point at issue between the Roman 
and Asiatic sees, he himself sided with Rome, and presided 3 
at a council of French Bishops, in which the practice of the 
Western Church was approved. 

In the writings of the Fathers of the third century, pas- 
sages occur which speak with much more direct force to the 
present point. 

" But if you think," says Origen, " the whole Church built 
upon Peter alone, what will you say of John, the son of 
thunder, or each one of the Apostles ? And are we to dare 
to say that the gates of hell shall not prevail against Peter 
only, but that they shall prevail against the other Apostles, 
and those who are perfect ? Are not the quoted words, < the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it/ and ' upon this rock 
I will build my Church/ said of them all, and of each single 
one of them ? Are the keys of the kingdom of heaven given 
to Peter only, and shall no other one of the blessed men 
receive them ? And if the words, 1 1 will give to thee the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven/ are common to the others, 
how are not all the words, said before and said after, said, as 
they seem to be, to Peter, also common to the others ? For 
in that place the words, ' whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven, &c/ seem as if they were spoken to 
Peter. But in the Gospel of John, the Saviour giving the 
Holy Spirit to the disciples by means of the Breath, 9 says, 
* Receive ye the Holy Ghost/ &c." 

It is in no respect in discordancy, but rather in striking and 
singular corroboration and illustration of the doctrine of this 
passage, that we find the same writer saying in other places, 

8 Euseb. Hist. v. 23. 

9 Origen, Comm. in S. Matt. torn. xii. 



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" From Peter himself/ when the supremacy in feeding the 
sheep was delivered to hirn, and the Church was founded on 
him as on the earth, the confession of no other virtue was 
exacted but that of love." And again, commenting upon the 
eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew : " But since it was neces- 
sary, although some things are said in common of Peter and 
those who give their brethren the three admonitions, 2 that 
Peter should have some special prerogative beyond those who 
give the three admonitions, the words, ' I will give thee the 
keys of the kingdom of the heavens/ are said first of Peter, 
and are separate from the words, ' whatsoever ye shall bind 
on earth, &c.' And yet if we should attend diligently to the 
words of the Evangelist, we should find even in them, and in 
respect of these very things which seem to be common to 
Peter and those who thrice admonish their brethren, a great 
difference and superiority in the things said to Peter above 
what is said to the others. For it is no small difference, that 
Peter should have received the keys not of one heaven, but of 
several heavens, and that whatsoever he should bind on earth 
should be bound not in one heaven only, but in all the 
heavens, &c." 3 

The claims of the Bishop of Rome as the successor of St. 
Peter to the submission of Christendom, must indeed have 
been unheard of and unknown, when a writer like Origen, 
searching for some point of superiority in St. Peter above the 
other Apostles, finds it at last in the fact that in the passage 
of St. Matthew xvi. 19, the word ougaww occurs in the plural 
number, whereas in xviii. it is ovgdvov in the singular ! 

The following passage of Firmilian, Bishop of Csesarea, in 

1 Petro, cum summa rerum de pascendis ovibus traderetur, et super 
ipsum, velut super terram fundaretur Ecclesia, nullius alterius ab eo 
virtutis confessio, nisi caritatis exigitur. — Comm. in Ep. ad Eomanos, 
lib. v. 

2 St. Matt, xviii. 15—17. 

3 Comm. in St. Matt. torn. xiii. 



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137 



Cappadocia, combines the statement of the true dignity of St. 
Peter with that of the real independence and equality of the 
Apostles. " What, however, is the error, and how great the 
blindness of him who says that remission of sins can be given 
in the synagogue of heretics, and who does not abide on the 
foundation of the one Church which was founded on the 
Rock, may be understood from hence, that Christ said to St. 
Peter alone, £ Whatsoever thou shalt bind/ &c, and again in 
the Gospel, when Christ breathed on the Apostles alone, say- 
ing, 1 Receive ye the Holy Ghost/ &c. Therefore the power 
of remitting sins was given to the Apostles, and to the 
Churches which they, being sent by Christ, founded, and to 
the Bishops who succeeded them by vicarious ordination. 
And in this point I have a right to be indignant at the open 
and manifest folly of Stephen, (this is Pope Stephen, the 
Bishop of Rome,) because he who boasts so highly of the 
place of his Episcopate, and maintains that he is the successor 
of St. Peter$ on whom the foundations of the Church were 
laid, introduces many other Rocks, and establishes the fabric 
of many other Churches." 4 

The doctrine of St. Cyprian upon the point before us is 
extremely full and clear from many passages of his treatises 
and epistles. A remarkable passage from the treatise "de 
Unitate Ecclesige," has been quoted above, in which he says 
plainly, that " Christ gave to all the Apostles equal autho- 
rity," and that " all the other Apostles were what Peter was, 
endowed with an equal participation of honour and power." 

In other places he says, " There is one God, and one Christ, 
and one Church, and one Chair founded by the voice of the 
Lord on Peter." 5 This doctrine is thus repeated in the Epistle 
of Cornelius to St. Cyprian : " Nor are we ignorant that there 
is one God, one Christ, the Lord whom we have confessed, 

4 Ep. Firmiliani apnd S. Cypriani Epist. 
Ep. xliii. S. Cypr. Plebi, ed. Fell. p. 83. 
12* 



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one Holy Ghost, tbat there ought to be one Bishop in the 
Catholic Church." 6 This assertion, which at the first sight 
might seem to favour the modern claims of the Roman see, 
is thus interpreted in the treatise " de Unitate " The Epis- 
copate is one ; of which every individual (Bishop) participates 
possessing it entire." 7 And again, elsewhere : " From Christ 
there is one Church, divided throughout the whole world into 
many members ; and one Episcopate, diffused by the ' con- 
cordant numerosity' of many Bishops." 8 Thus the Episcopate 
is " single and indivisible," 9 but held in equal truth and ful- 
ness by many. All alike hold under the promise made to 
St. Peter. 1 That promise was addressed to him personally, 
" to manifest unity but in him, was addressed alike to all. 
There are many shepherds, but the flock is one; 2 in order that 
if any member of our college (Bishops) endeavour to make 
heresy, and tear the flock of Christ, the rest may assist, and, 
like good shepherds, collect the Lord's sheep into the flock. 
All shepherds hold by no other right than that of legitimate 
and successive ordination. 3 Yet St. Peter himself, whom the 
Lord chose first, and on whom He built His Church, when 
afterwards Paul disputed with him about circumcision, did 
not claim any thing to himself so insolently or arrogantly as 
to say that he held a primacy, or that he ought rather to be 
obeyed by the present and future generation. 

The force of these passages of St. Cyprian and Firmilian is 
greatly increased, when it is remembered how they acted in 
respect of the successor of St. Peter, the Bishop of the Roman 

6 Ep. xlix. p. 96, Cornelius Cypriano. 

7 Episcopatus unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur. — De 
Unit. Eccl p. 107. 

8 Episcopatus unus, Episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate dif- 
fusus. Ep. lv. Cyprianus Antoniano, p. 112. 

9 Episcopatum— unum atque indivisum probemus. — De Unit. Eccl. p. 
108. 

1 Ep. xxxiii. p. 66. Ep. lxvi. p. 166. 2 Ep. lxviii. p. 178. 
3 Ep. lxix. p. 181, 182. 



III.] PASTORAL COMMISSION. 139 

see. Not only did they differ with him, strongly and point- 
edly, upon the subject of the rebaptism of persons heretically 
baptized, but they persevered in this difference to the length 
of incurring his excommunication. 4 Nor even when excom- 
municated did they seem to entertain any uneasiness or fear 
lest separation from Rome should have cut them off from the 
body of Christ, or disproved the legitimacy of their succession 
from the Apostles. On the contrary, they rely on the Scrip- 
tures of God, and the Apostolic tradition of truth, and reply 
to the sentence of Pope Stephen by saying, "He is the true 
schismatic, who has made himself an apostate from the com- 
munion of Ecclesiastical unity. For while thou thinkest that 
all men can be excommunicated by thee, thou hast only ex- 

4 The fact of the excommunication of St. Cyprian is denied by Baronius. 
It is thus asserted by Fleuvy: "II rejettoit la decision du concile d'Af- 
rique ; et declaroit qu'il ne communiqueroit plus avec Cyprien et les 
autres eveques du meme sentiment, s'ils ne quittoient leur opinion." But 
there can be no doubt of the fact. The excommunication of Firmilian 
and the Asiatic Bishops is proved by Dionysius of Alexandria (Euseb. 
Hist. Eccl. vii. 5,) and Finnilian's Epistle ; and that of St. Cyprian, though 
not absolutely proved by the Epistle of St. Cyprian to Pompeius, is plainly 
asserted by Firmilian in his Epistle to St. Cyprian in these passages : 
I Quod nunc Stephanus ausus est facere, rumpens adversum vos pacem." 
I Quid enim humilius aut lenius quam cum tot Episcopis pertotum mun- 
dum dissensisse : pacem cum singulis vario discordias genere rumpentem, 
modd cum Orientalibus (quod nec vos latere confidimus) modd vobiscum, 
qui in meridie estis," &c. "Et tamen non pudet Stephanum — fraterni- 
tatem scindere : insuper et Cyprianuin pseudochristum, pseudoar)ostoluni, 
et dolosum operarium dicere." — The point is also clear' from the testimony 
of St. Augustine. — v. the passage quoted in p. 141. 

It has been similarly denied, that Polycrates, Bp. of Ephesus, was ex- 
communicated by Pope Victor (v. Eouth. Annot. in Concilium Lugdu- 
nense, vol. i. p. 395.) It is, no doubt, important to the Eomish argument 
that neither of these excommunications should have taken place ; for, if 
they did, they were certainly regarded as ineffectual to cut off from the 
Catholic body the Bishops against whom they were directed, and such 
unquestionable want of power would go far towards disproving the claims 
of the Roman Bishop. But, important or no, there can be no real doubt 
of the historical facts. 



140 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC. 



communicated thyself from all." 5 Neither of these Fathers 8 
seems to have recanted the doctrines which they held, and 
neither was received into any formal reconciliation with the 
Church of Rome. Each of them is esteemed, the one in the 
Western, the other in the Eastern Church, a Saint and Doctor 
of the highest eminence. It is true, that the decision of the 
Church, 7 has pronounced them to have been in the wrong in 
the doctrine which they defended, but even those who con- 
demn their doctrine of rebaptization, neither find fault with 
them for the mere fact of withstanding the Roman see, nor 
doubt that they were true and holy members and Bishops of 
the Church of Christ. 

Indeed, the manner in which St. Augustine (who elabo- 

5 Lites enim et dissensiones quantas parasti per Ecclesias totius mundi ? 
Peccatum vero quarn magnum, tibi exaggerasti, quando te a tot gregibus 
scidisti ? Excidisti enim teipsum : noli te fallere. Siquidem ille est vere 
schismaticus, qui se a communione Ecclesiastical unitatis Apostatam 
fecerit. Dum enim putas omnes a te abstineri posse, solum te ab omnibus 
abstinuisti. — Firmilianus Cypriano, p. 228. See Bp. Fell's note. 

6 S. Augustin. de Baptismo, c. Donatistas, lib. ii. says on this point : 
" Uni verum dicenti et demonstranti posset facillime consentire tarn sancta 
anima, tarn pacata: et fortasse factum est, sed nescimus. Neque enim 
omnia quae illo tempore inter Episcopos gesta sunt memorise literisque 
mandari potuerunt, aut omnia quaa mandata sunt novimus." 

7 Cone. Arelat. I. (anno 314) can. viii. 

De Afris, quod propria lege sua utuntur ut rebaptizent, placuit ut si ad 
ecclesiam aliquis de hasresi venerit, interrogent eum symbolum ; et si per- 
viderint eum in Patre et Filio et Spiritu Sancto esse baptizatum, manus 
ei tantum imponatur ut accipiat Spiritum Sanctum. Quod si interrogatus 
non respondent hanc trinitatem, baptizetur. 

Cf. Cone. Nicamum I. (anno 325) can. viii. xix. — St. Augustin, who 
throughout the treatise de Bapt. c. Donatistas, speaks of the question as 
settled by the final authority of a plenary council, may possibly refer to 
either of these councils. The Benedictine editor supposes him to refer to 
the former, which certainly speaks most expressly to the point, but the 
manner in which St. Augustine describes the council in many places (e. 
g. Hoc enim jam in ipsa, totius orbis unitate discussum, consideratum 
perfectum atque firmatum est. c. Ep. Parmeniani, lib. ii.), seems to suit 
much better with the latter ; besides that the Donatists appealed from the 
Council of Aries to Constantine. (v. S. Aug. c. Ep. Parmen. i. 6.) 



III.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



141 



rately examines the controversy in his treatise " de Baptismo 
contra Donatistas") speaks of St. Cyprian's conduct in it, is 
very corroborative of the doctrine of the independency of 
Churches and their Bishops, and the non-existence of any 
right on the part of the successor of St. Peter to the submis- 
sion of Christendom. For while he clearly condemns St. 
Cyprian on the point of doctrine, and seems to think that he 
maintains rather the side of St. Peter in the controversy of 
Antioch than that of St. Paul, he does not scruple to allege 
his authority, as drawn from this very dispute, to condemn 
those who break unity, 8 or recede voluntarily from communion. 
Thus, while on the point of doctrine he strongly sides with 
Pope Stephen, on the point of fraternal love and charity, he 
vindicates St. Cyprian. " Submission to Rome," " subjection 
to the chair of St. Peter/' or to Pope Stephen as the inheritor 
of any derived supremacy from that Apostle, is an idea as 
wholly alien to the treatise of St. Augustine as it is to the 
treatises and epistles, and the conduct of St. Cyprian: the 
necessity of fraternal love and affectionate intercommunion of 
Churches is felt by this great Father to be so imperative and 
essential to the unity of the one Church of Grod, that he rather 
justifies the erring Cyprian, who maintained it in meekness, 9 

8 Stephanus autem etiam abstinendos putaverat, qui de suscipiendis 
hasreticis priscam consuetudinem convellere conarentur : iste autum (sc. 
Cyprianus) qusestionis ipsius difficultate permotus, et Sanctis caritatis 
visceribus largissime prasditus, in unitate cum eis manendum,qui diversa 
sentirent.— S. Aug. de Bapt. c. Don. lib. v. (ix. 158. 152.) Cf. S. Aug. 
c. Cresc. Don. lib. ii. c. 31—36. 

9 The following passages, in which St. Augustine speaks of St. Cyprian 
and his conduct in his compulsory separation from communion, seem to 
bear with no slight weight on the position of the English Church forcibly 
driven from communion with Western Christendom, and regretting its 
unwilling isolation. He is enumerating the points in which " the bright- 
ness of his Christian charity shines forth." 

" Primo quia id quod sensit, non tacuit ; deinde quia tarn mansuete et 
pacifice protulit, quia cum his qui aliud sentiebant ecclesiasticam pacem 
tenuit, quia in unitatis vinculo tantam salubritatem esse intellexit, quia 
earn tantum dilexit, et sobrie custodivit, quia vidit et sensit etiam diversa 



142 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



[DISC- 



than the harsh and imperious Stephen, who even in support- 
ing the truth offended against it. 

The letters of Pope Stephen on this controversy are lost. 
Fleury, in his History, speaks of a defence of Pope Stephen, 
which he supposes to have been written by a Bishop, and 
perhaps by the Pope himself. This document is to be found 
printed in the Appendix 10 to St. Cyprian's works. There is 
not in it a single word to claim or prove any right of superi- 
ority or supremacy in the see of Home. 

Thus this great controversy, involving as it did the Bishops 
of Italy, Asia, and Africa, conducted by three of the most 
eminent prelates of the time, carried to the length of causing 
the excommunication of the Asiatic and African by the Italian 
Bishop, examined in detail and commented upon by one of 
the greatest Fathers of the Western Church, one hundred and 
fifty years after it had ceased, was begun, argued, completed, 

sentientes posse salva caritate sentire : neque enim cum malis tenere se 
diceret divinam concordiam et Dominicam pacem ; bonus quippe habere 
erga malos pacem potest ; tenere autem cum eis pacem non potest, quam 
ipsi non tenent : postremo quia nemini prsescribens neque prsejudicans, 
quo minus unusquisque episcoporum quod putat faciat habens arbitrii sui 
liberam potestatem, etiam nobis qualibuscunque locum dedit pacifice 
secum ista tractandi." — v. 152. 

" Spiritales autem, sive ad hoc ipsum pio studio proficientes, non eunt 
foras : quia et cum aliqua vel perversitate vel necessitate hominum viden- 
tur expelli, ibi magis probantur, quam si intus permaneant, cum adversus 
Ecclesiam nullatenus eriguntur, sed in solida unitatis petra fortissimo 
caritatis robore radicantur." — i. 93. 

For if St. Cyprian, holding a wrong opinion, and excommunicated at a 
time when the Church of Christ was an unbroken body, the ' orbis ter- 
rarum,' could be so spoken of, how cannot all this at least be said of a 
Church desirous of all things to maintain the entire Primitive Faith, and 
driven, not by its own act, from the Communion of a section of Christen- 
dom bound together by subjection to a single Bishop, who claims a divine 
supremac3 r and infallibility which neither St. Cyprian nor St. Augustine 
had ever heard of ? 

10 " Tractatus ignoti auctoris, a Rigaltio, in notis ad Cyprianum primum 
editus ; in quo suadetur, non debere denuo baptizari qui semel in nomine 
Domini nostri Jesu Christ! sint tincti." 



III.] 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



143 



and judged of, without any claim of superiority in the Roman 
see being set up, or resisted, or heard of, or apparently con- 
ceived by any party in the discussion. 

These passages may suffice for a specimen of the teaching 
of the earliest Church respecting the equality of the Apostles, 
and the supposed supremacy of St. Peter. If we were to pro- 
ceed to the writings of the next century, we should find an 
abundance of passages in which the same tradition is most 
clearly and fully testified. But for these it must suffice to 
refer to those writers of the Anglican Church who have 
addressed themselves to this controversy, and principally to 
Bishop Jewell, in his Defence of the Apology, and Dr. Barrow 
in his Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy. It is abundantly 
proved by these writers, that the doctrines of St. Augustine, 
St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome, as well as of the other principal 
Fathers of that age, was in entire accordance with that of the 
earlier times, and recognizecka complete equality of all Apos- 
tolic powers among the Apostles themselves, and among those 
who had by due succession, and imposition of Apostolic hands, 
inherited their place and order in the Church of Christ. 

But while we thus vindicate the equality of the Apostles 
among themselves, and by consequence the equality of those 
who cannot have inherited from them more than they them- 
selves possessed, we should be most unfortunate if we were led 
to conceive any thoughts disparaging to the great Apostle of 
the' circumcision, the Apostle whom the Lord delighted to 
honour, and whom the early Church ever designated by every 
title of affectionate and reverential respect. It is impossible 
to deny, that St. Peter occupies, in all the Gospel history, a 
place of high eminence and distinction among his brethren. 
From his first call he was designated as Cephas, a great and 
noble stone of the foundation of that Christian Temple of 
which His Master, the Son of the Living God, was the Head 
Stone in the corner. Throughout his Master's ministry he 
was the first in speech, the first in act, the first in zeal. He 



PASTORAL COMMISSION. 



was blessed by the signal revelation of Grod's truth. He 
was blessed by being the one Apostle chosen to represent the 
whole college of the Apostles in receiving the signal promise 
of the building of the Church, and the keys of the kingdom. 
He was blessed by being the one among his brethren to 
whom many special words of love and mercy were addressed, 
and many loving words, too, of tender rebuke and warning. 
He was blessed by being the Apostle for whom particularly 
Christ prayed that his faith should not fail, and who, when 
converted, should have the duty of strengthening his brethren. 
Though his fall was great, greater than that of all who forsook 
their Lord and fled, yet was his restoration great too, for he 
was again chosen of them all to be the one to receive, as re- 
presenting all, the great pastoral commission. Thus, as he 
had before been the model of faith to the Apostles, so was he 
now of love ; and as the keys of the kingdom had been the 
sacred reward of faith, so was the shepherd's staff the blessed 
gift to love. To him was given the special office of bringing 
the first Gentile convert into the communion of Christ's 
Church. And his Lord promised that he should glorify Grod 
by a death like His own, when his forward impetuous spirit 
having been curbed and tamed by the discipline of the Holy 
Grhost, and his loving indiscretion brought to the calm and 
gentle wisdom of a " fellow-elder," 1 he at last stretched forth 
his hands, 2 and another girded him, and carried him whither 
he would not. 

That glorious martyrdom bound him for ever fast to the 
bright shore of love and joy. He now, we doubt not, is with 
the Lord whom he believed and loved, and in his death was 
permitted to imitate. There he has high and sacred com- 
munion with his Lord, and with every other member of his 
Lord's sacred and immortal body, as every true member of 
that sacred body Icannot but have communion with him. 



1 1 St. Peter, v. 1. 



2 . fm xxi IS. 



III.] PASTORAL COMMISSION. 145 

For he was made, on two most signal occasions of his life, 
to be the very symbol of unity in God's Church. The sym- 
bol of unity is indeed not identical with the head of unity, 
nor will we so praise and magnify St. Peter as either to 
eclipse the glory of his brethren the Apostles, or (which God 
forbid !) to put him into the place of his Lord. But as the 
symbol of unity he holds eminent rank and station among 
the people of God; — such rank, and dignity, and station, and 
claim of honour, that they who disregard and disown and care 
not for it, would seem to risk putting themselves out of the 
unity of that body, by whose oneness in Christ the world 
should believe that God had sent His Son. 3 

3 St. John xvii. 



13 



DISCOUESE IV. 



tov ©£oi, xai tov ovofiatog fov 'lqaoii Xpurtov, i^artti^owto d^Sgfj 
"t e xai yvvatxss* 

But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the king 
dom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both 
men and women. — Acts viii. 12. 

When we look at the exact terms in which the Baptismal 
Commission is given to the Apostles, it is impossible not to 
perceive that they are of a very remarkable kind : " Go ye, 
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" or 
when the idiom of the original is duly represented in the 
English, " make disciples, and baptize into the Name." For 
two things are to be done into the Holy Name of the Trinity. 
The Apostles are to make disciples into the Name, and they 
are to baptize into the Name ; or, more exactly still, they are 
to make disciples into the Name by baptizing into it. 

It is plain, therefore, that the Holy Name of God, the 
Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is made 
to hold a most remarkable and prominent place in the Charter 
of the Christian Church. And not only so, but it is also 
somewhat difficult to understand what the precise place is 
which it does hold. For what is it to make disciples into a 
Name? again, what is it to baptize into a Name? or, con- 




[DISC. IV.] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



147 



jointly, what is it to make disciples into a Name, by baptizing 
into it ? 

These are the questions which it will be attempted to 
answer in the present Discourse. 

Three things appear to be clear : first, that the Name of 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, must be not a Name only, 
but a Name containing Doctrine. For doctrines only can be 
made the subject of teaching, and they must needs be taught 
who are to be made disciples. The Apostles, then, being 
directed to go into all nations and make disciples, are to find 
in this Name the matter of the teaching of the world. Se- 
condly, that the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost, is given to be the name also of the Church. For the 
Gentiles converted by the Apostles to the truth of the doc- 
trine of the Name, are to be received into the Name ; and to 
be received into a name (whatever else it may mean) can 
hardly be conceived to mean less than to be made partakers 
of that name, so as, in some manner or degree, to be called 
by it. And thirdly, that the Name of the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, is not only thus a Doctrine and an Appellation, 
but is also something to be admitted into j something within 
which a man is not where he was before j something, from 
being within which he comes to have a claim to that appella- 
tion ; a holy Precinct, as it were, — a position of new relation, 
an estate of new privilege, a condition of some kind of near- 
ness, union, and reception with God. 

To give a name 1 at all to the great God must needs far 
surpass all knowledge and power of man. "We may call Him 
the Creator, indeed, as He created the world ; our Father, as 

1 ^OvofAix 8s tcp Tiavtuiv rtatgu Bstov, aysvvrficp bvtt, ovx s6ti,v' 9 
yap av scat dpopato rtgotfayopEir^rm, rtgsofivtspov t^st top ^ts/xspov to 
bvofxa' to 8s rtatyp, xai ©eoj, xai xtlstrj^ xai xv^lo{, xai 8eo7totr]s, 
ovx ovo/xatd iotiv, aM.' Ix t&v sv7ioLt<Zv, xai tZ>v tgycov 7tgoe>£*jc£tj. — 
S. Justin Martyr, Apol. ii. 6. — v. too, Suicer's Thesaurus, sub voce © £0 $, 
I. f. 



148 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. 



He loves and protects us with fatherly love ; our Lord and 
King, as He rules over us with absolute dominion ; but this 
is not so properly to name Him as to name His deeds, or 
His relation to ourselves. It is as though we identified and 
named a few of the separate rays which issued from the pri- 
mary source of light, while we vainly endeavoured to raise 
our eyes to the fountain and centre of all brightness. For 
who could span with a name, a true and adequate name, the 
incomprehensible and unapproachable Being of God, whose 
throne is set amidst clouds and darkness, unapproachable to 
human sight and thought ? 

Accordingly, in the ancient Scriptures, the sacred Name of 
G-od is always spoken of with the utmost reverence, solemnity, 
and awe. 3 It is a secret name and wonderful, a name not to 
be taken in vain, a name excellent in all the earth f a name 
to be praised and exalted above all blessing and praise, 4 which 
they who know will put their trust in Him f a name which is 
a defence ; a name to be remembered, in which we are to set 
up our banners; a name to which glory is due; 6 a name 
through which we will tread them under that rise up against 
us f a name to be remembered in all generations f a name 
to be waited on ; 9 a name whereby He rideth on the heavens f 
a name to endure for ever, 2 to be continued as long as the 
sun ; a glorious name to be blessed for ever ; a name which 
is great and terrible, for it is holy f a holy name for men to 
glory in f a name to be praised from this time forth for ever- 
more, and from the rising of the sun unto the going down of 
the same ; 5 a glorious and fearful name ; a name for the sake 



2 Gen. xxxii. 29. Judges xiii. 18. 3 Ps. viii. 1, 9. 

4 Ps. vii. 17 ; xviii. 49 ; xxxiv. 3. Neb. ix. 5. 

5 Ps. ix. 10. 6 Ibid. xx. 1, 5, 7 ; xxix. 2. 
7 Ibid. xliv. 5. 8 Ibid. xlv. 17. 

9 Ibid. lii. 9. 1 Ibid. Ixviii. 4. 

2 Ibid, lxxii. 17, 19. 3 Ibid, xcix- 3. 

4 Ibid. cv. 3. 5 Ibid, cxiii. 2, 3. 



THE SACKED NAME. 



149 



of which God will be entreated for sin f a name to be called 
upon in sorrow ; 7 a name for the destruction of enemies ; 8 a 
name wherein is our help; 9 a name to be praised, for it is 
lovely, 1 a name magnified above all things, 2 a name to be 
praised by all created things with joy. 3 

But it is observable, that from very early times the name 
of G-od is spoken of as containing a revelation of truth. 4 
There is a very remarkable passage to this effect in the Book 
of Exodus : " And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, 
I am the Lord : and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, 
and unto Jacob, by the Name of God Almighty, but by my 
name Jehovah, was I not known unto theni." 5 That name, 
however, of Jehovah, thus withheld from the patriarchs, was 
solemnly given to Moses ; for when God appeared to him in 
the burning bush, and in answer to his inquiry, what he should 
say unto the children of Israel, and how he should name Him 
by whose commission he spoke to them with authority, He 
said unto him, "I am that I am;" and He said, "Thus 
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me 

6 Deut. xxviii. 58. Jer. xiv. 7, 21. Ps. xxv. 11 ; ixxix. 9 ; cix. 21. 

7 Ps. cxvi. 4, 12, 15. 8 Ibid, cxviii. 10, 12. 
9 Ibid, cxxiv. 7. 1 Ibid, cxxxv. 3. 

2 Ibid, cxxxviii. 2. 3 Ibid. cxl. 5. 

4 Ferunt virtutem hujus sancti nominis primum innotuisse Mosi. Ob- 
servaudum est hoc loco, notitiam hujus nominis Dei babere sua incrementa, 
sicut bic rnanifeste dicitur, majorem contigisse Mosi, quam Patribns. 
Quam Paulus adventu Cbristi adeo auctam esse dicit, \\t principum et 
potestatum coelesthim de Deo cognitionem auxerit. — Clarius ad Exod. 
vi. 3. (.Critic! Sacri.) 

Kca tfot? |U£J> ayloog ainfov 6 ©eoj, tip 'Aj3paa«, xai ta 'Icraa*, xai 
t"q ; Iaxw3» tor, 5ta to si$ rtaGav apstrjv tsteLV, xai 6 ©foj dvopd^Bodai, 
u>$ ti e%aipstov xai rtgsrCov ti<y lavtov (xzya'keiotqto, rtgosTifxrjos, — 
tovtoig ovSs to bvofia lavtov sdrjhwasv 6 ©toj, "/jrtov ys tftjv ovsiav 
sstiv aiiixaXv^iv' 'Eyw yag, tyrjtii, Kotos' xai uttyOqv rfgoj, 'A^^aa,|W, 
xai 'Itfaouc, xai 'IascwjS, 0f6$ u>v avtuv, xai to bvopd /xov ovx 
avtol$" ">S fxei^ov dqhovott, &at£ apOpcorilvy] axoy ^cog^fljjj'CH. — 
S. Basil, adv. Eunomium, lib. i. 13. 

6 Exod. vi. 3. 

13* 



150 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. 



unto you." " And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus 
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of 
your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the 
God of J acob, hath sent me unto you this is my name for 
ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations/' 6 

From these passages it is clear, that when Moses was sent 
to speak with authority to the children of Israel, and to assure 
them of deliverance from Egypt, he received as his credentials 
this sacred name of J ehovah ; and that he received it in some 
manner in which it had never been given before. 

The first impression produced on reading the passage of 
Exodus vi. 3, is, no doubt, that the name of J ehovah (regarded 
merely as a name or appellation) was absolutely unknown to 
the nation before the mission of Moses ; and this impression 
receives support from the authority of Josephus, 7 and various 
other Jewish and Christian writers. But there are so many 
passages in the book of Genesis, in which the name is used, 
that it is difficult to feel sure that this impression is a just one. 
In some, indeed, of these passages, the name may be used 
historically, — that is, Moses, the writer of the book, knowing, 
by more recent revelation, the new name of God, may have 
introduced it in narrative places, and sometimes even substi- 
tuted it where some other appellation was tHe one actually 
employed. But there are some passages (such for instance as 

6 Exod. iii. 14, 15. Ps. cxxxv. 13. Hosea xii. 5. 

7 M-OivSyjs Ss — rjVttfio'hav jA^bs ovofxatoi av?G> yvZiGiv toy ISt'ov (pOovtjaai, 
^vtjs 8s avtcp y,et£0%r]x6tii xai o^sws tVt, xai trjv rtpoaqyoplav urtnv — 
xai 6 0f6$ avtq> arifxaovev tqv eavtov rtpotiqyogiav, ov rtgotsgov ftj 
av9gJ*rtov$ 7iag£%9ovoav, rtsgt fj$-ov fioi Osfus sirtslv. — Josephus, Antiq. 
Jud. lib. ii. c. 12, (vol. i. p. 106. Haverc.) 

Theodoret, qtisest. xv. in Exod. ti edtiv, xai to bvo/Aci fiov Kvptoj 
ovx JS^wffa avtoi$ ; — AiSdaxsi itoGys tif^js xai EvpevBias avtbv rfeiuasv' 
o yag tol$ rtatgid^xais ovx ibrj'KucSsv ovofxa tovto avta 8r t hov S7t0irj6sv, 
ifyrj yag rtg6$ avtbv, syu> sl/xc 6 coi>* tovto 8s reap' 'E/3gaioes dtypaotov 
dvofiagetat,. — v. J. Drusii Tetragrammaton, c. 25. (Crit. Sacri, vol. ii. 
p. iii. 355.) 



IV.] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



151 



Genesis xiv. 22 j xv. 2, 7, 8 ; xvi. 11) in which this explana- 
tion appears to be hardly admissible, and which will rather 
lead to the conclusion that the words of Exodus vi. 3, imply, 
that though the name Jehovah, as a mere appellation, may 
have been used before the time of Moses, its significancy and 
truthfulness had never before been made known to the people. 
Hitherto the names of God and God Almighty had been those 
by which he had been called, and of which the patriarch, and 
older worshippers of God, had had experimental knowledge. 
They had known Him as their God, and they had witnessed 
in his care and preservation 8 of them his almighty power, 
dominion, and all-sufficiency. But now He made Himself 
known to his people by a new name ; and if the actual appella- 
tion were one not unknown before, this fact only makes it 
the more clear and certain, that it is the truth involved, and 
the promise given, in this holy name, which God now designed 
to impress with all solemnity upon the nation. The name 
Jehovah then contained a great revelation of God's truth, and 
that truth was the self-existent being, and high eternal perfect- 
ness of the God of Israel, and it contained a strong comfort 
of promise ; and that promise assured the people in the moment 
of their affliction, and in the anticipation of the struggle of 
their rescue from the bondage of Egypt, that this eternal and 
self-existing God, whose name Jehovah was his memorial to 
all coming generations, was pledged to their continual, uni- 
form, and ever-present protection, and would forthwith make 
good the promises which He had given, and to which their 
faith looked forward. 

And accordingly we find this sacred name regarded in 

8 See the notes of Vatablus and Drusius on Exod. vi. 3, among the 
Critici Sacri: " God was known to Abraham by the true importance of 
the title Adonai, as much as by the name of Skaddai ; as much by his 
dominion and sovereignty as by his power and all-sufficiency ; but by any 
experimental and personal sense of the fulfilling of his promises, his name 
Jehovah was not known unto him." — Bp. Pearson on the Creed, art. ii. 



152 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. 



J ewish history as the peculiar possession of the chosen people, 
the memorial of God among them. So in the 68th Psalm, 
" Sing unto God, sing praises to his name, extol him that 
rideth on the heavens by his name Jah, and rejoice before 
him." 9 And in the 83d, " Let them be confounded and 
troubled for ever ; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish ; 
that men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, 
art the most high over all the earth." 1 The 135th Psalm 
speaks of this name being the enduring memorial of God : 
" Thy name, Lord, (Jehovah) endureth for ever ; and thy 
memorial, Lord, (Jehovah) throughout all generations." 3 
And the prophet Hosea says, " The Lord God of hosts ; the 
Lord (Jehovah) is his memorial." 3 

The beginnings, though hitherto quite obscure and shadowy, 
of a still further revelation of the sacred name of God, are to 
be found in the prophecies of Christ. Who should He be, 
and what his nature, — how distinguishable from the nature of 
God, or joined and united with it, whose name should be 
called " wonderful, counsellor, the mighty God, the everlast- 
ing Father, the Prince of peace ?" 4 If He be David's son, 
how could David in spirit call him Lord ? 5 If the God of 
Israel be still one God, as He had so solemnly declared Him- 
self to the people, and his sacred incommunicable name " I 
AM," 6 how should He inspire his prophets to give this wonder- 
ful name so often to another, 7 or say to Him, " Thy throne, 
O God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of righteousness is the 
sceptre of thy kingdom ; thou hast loved righteousness, and 

9 Ps. lxviii. 4. 1 Ibid, lxxxiii. 18. 

2 Ps. exxxv. 13. 3 Hosea. xii. 5. 

4 Isaiah ix. 6. cf. Jer. xxiii. 6. 5 Ps. ex. 1. St. Matt. xxii. 43. 

6 Deut. vi. 4. 

1 Lowth's note on Jer. xxiii. 6. " The title of Jehovah is elsewhere 
given to the Messiah by the prophets. See Is. xl. 10 ; xlviii. 17. Hos. i. 7. 
Zech. ii. 10, 11. Mai. iii. 1." Cf. Vitringa in Is. vol. ii. p. 574. S. 
August. 1 P. torn. iii. p. 57. 



iv.] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



153 



hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed 
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows ?" 8 

With the holy nativity came fresh signs of a further 
approaching revelation of God's sacred name. The blessed 
mother knew that the Holy -Ghost, whose being, divinity, 
and greatness, she could hardly yet have heard of, was to 
come upon her, and that therefore the holy child born of her 
should have the name of the Son of God. Yet even she, and 
even then, though she pondered deeply, and treasured in her 
heart the many marks of Divine love and subjection of her 
dutiful child, and felt her heart burn within her, no doubt, 
at the sparks of unearthly wisdom which fell from his lips, 
while even as a boy He was bent upon his Father's business, 
knew not yet the full revelation of his greatness. Still less 
did the Jews, and even the disciples, understand the great 
truth that was about to burst upon them ; so that the myste- 
rious words, u Before Abraham was, I am," "I and the 
Father are one," and others such as these, with all his words 
and deeds of Divine power and Majesty, must have been like 
glimmering lights in the East, foretelling an approaching 
dawn of high and Divine truth. 

In this great Saying, then, of the holy forty days, the Say- 
ing which imparts the baptismal commission to the Apostles, 
the name of God is published to the Church, in its third and 
final revelation to be given upon the earth. He who was 
"God Almighty" to the patriarchs, who was " Jehovah-' to 
Israel under the law, should now be " Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost," to the Church. The various great and wonderful 
things said by Christ and of Him, in the prophecies of old, 
and in the Gospels, the scattered words of greatness spoken of 
the Spirit, were gathered up into a great truth. God, who 
had hitherto revealed Himself as One, was henceforth not less 
one, but in some mysterious manner Three. Within the unity 



8 Ps. xlv. 6. Heb. i. 8. 



154 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. 



was to be worshipped a Trinity. A sacred and most mysterious 
distinction of personality and subsistence was made known 
amid the one eternal substance of the most high God. To be 
seen, but not seen through j to be heard, but not penetrated 
by hearing ; to be believed, but not comprehended ; to be ac- 
cepted as a truth, but not, like human truths, to be seen all 
round, converted, deduced into consequences, the great new 
Name of God was given forever to the Church to reveal Him- 
self and his nature, and the scheme of Divine mercy for the 
restoration of the world. For " this," says the Creed of St. 
Athanasius, speaking of none other than the doctrine of the 
Holy Trinity, which is the name of God, " This is the Catho- 
lic faith, which, except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be 
saved." 

Nor must it be forgotten, that the later Scriptures speak of 
the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as it were, by Himself, 
as a great, mysterious, and saving Name, which doth not ex- 
clude, but rather includes, and in its own mysterious compre- 
hensiveness, declares the entire Name of God. It is not only 
that the designation of Him as Lord, used often by the pro- 
phets, and continually by the Evangelists and Apostles, 
carries with it a distinct and unquestionable implication of his 
being the divine and self-existent Jehovah • for the word Lord 
(or Ki5pioj,9 as derived from the verb xvgo, to be) is the ordi- 
nary translation of the Seventy, for the great incommunica- 
ble name, the sacred tetragrammaton ; nor only that the 
name of Jesus, as given by Divine direction, and fulfilling 
prophecy signifies, " God with us, saving us from our sins/' 1 
nor only that the name of Christ, according to the doctrine of 
many of the Fathers, is the confession of all the Trinity, 3 for 

9 V. Schleusner on the New Testament, in voc. xvgco$, and Bp. Pear- 
son's notes to the 2d Art. of the Creed (vol. ii. p. 158.) 

1 St. Matt. i. 21. 23. Is. vii. 14. 

2 In Christi enim nomine subaudittir qui unxit, et ipse qui unctus est, 
et ipsa unctio in qua unctus est. Et unxit quidem Pater, unctus vero est 



IV.] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



155 



it exhibiteth the Father the Anointer, the Son the Anointed, 
and the Holy Ghost the Sacred Unction ; but beyond all this, 
there are many passages in which the " name of the Lord/' 
and "the name of the Lord Jesus," must needs signify the 
name of the Holy Trinity. Such are those many places in 
the Acts of the Apostles, in which we read of persons bap- 
tized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 3 Akin to which are 
those very frequent expressions of the Epistles, about " being 
in the Lord," being " in Christ," " putting on Christ in bap- 
tism." These phrases, which have already been referred to in 
connexion with other parts of the argument, and which are 
too numerous to be all cited, bear unquestionable reference to 
that new and glorious estate of privilege and blessing, in 
which, having had that sacred name of the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, called over us, and being called by that sacred 
name, we have our fellowship by holy baptism with the Father 
and the Son, by drinking into one Spirit. So that being bap- 
tized into the name of the Holy Trinity, we are shortly said 
to be " in Christ." His name, as it is on the one hand, the 
name of the Church, so on the other, is it the name of God ; 
and the double name of Jesus Christ contains within itself, in 
no doubtful or distant implication, the whole mystery of God 
and man; God incarnate, saving, reconciled, God in three 
Persons ; man saved from the power and punishment of sins, 
made partaker of the Divine nature, restored from the fall, 
and united, all in one body of many members, in sacred mys- 

Filius, in Spiritu qui est unctio : quemadmodum per Esaiam ait Sermo, 
Spiritus Dei super me ; propter quod unxit me ; significans et ungentum 
Patrem, et unctum Filium, et unctionem, qui est Spiritus. — S. Irenceus 
c. Hsereses, lib. iii. c. xviii. 4. 

'H yag toy Xpiijroi rtpotf^yopi'a toy rtaPtos iatw ojitoft-oyta* S>^o& yap 
<tov ts xpiaavta Qebv, xai tbv zgia^rivta Tlov, xai to %pi<3fia to IlwiSfta. 
-^-S. Basil, de Sp. Sancto, c. xii. See the whole section. 
I 3 Vide Appendix, on Baptism in the Name of the Lord. 



156 THE SACRED NAME. [DISC. 

tery with God. Thus is his sacred name made glorious. 4 
Thus is his name a name which is above every name; a name 
at which every knee must bow, of things in heaven, and 
things in earth, and things under the earth, while every tongue 
confesseth that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of G-od the 
Father. 5 Thus hath He by inheritance obtained a more ex- 
cellent name than the angels, a name " far above all princi- 
pality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name 
that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which 
is to come." 

Revealed, then, in this great Saying, the mighty name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the one 
name of three, the sacred three in one, is given to the 
Apostles, as the sum and substance of Christian truth and 
doctrine. 6 It is the only word of doctrine delivered to them 
in the course of the forty days, the only word of doctrine con- 
tained in this great Church charter. It is the only doctrine 
contained in it, no doubt for this reason, because it comprises 
all doctrine. There is no part nor portion of Divine truth 
which does not fall under some one of its three great heads. 
It is not that the other parts, as men might think them, of 
revelation, are omitted, or overlooked, or disregarded in com- 
parison of a greater truth. It is rather that they are all con- 

4 Notaudum, quod in primitiva Ecclesia baptizabatur in nomine Christi, 
et hoc lit redderetur nomen venerabile. Sed numquid modo sufficeret ? 
Credo quod non, quia expressa requiritur invocatio Trinitatis. In Christo 
continetur implicite Trinitas. — Thorn. Aquinas in S. Matt, xxviii. 

5 Phil. ii. 9. Heb. i. 4. Eph. i. 29. 

6 Tlogsvdsvts g /JLaOrjtsvaats rtdvta td sQvy}, ^artri^ovtsg a,vtov$ si$ to 
ovo/xa tov Uatgbs, xoi tov Tlov, xai tov dyvov Ilvsv/xatos, 8i8doxovts$ 
avtovs tr t p(lv rtdvta oaa svstsc%dfxt]v v/xlv to (xsv rtsgi Soypdtczv, to 
8s rtspi htoTMV rtaQayyilXuv' Kat 'lovSaicav /j.sv oi8sv pifAvritcu, oi8s 
stj fisaov (pipsL to, ysysvrjfisva, ov8s 6vti8i<$si Hstgcp trjv dpvrjow, ov8s 
t<Zv oJikoiv ov8evi tr\v ^vy^V xsXsvsu 8s sis t*qv olxov/xivqi' ix%vdr t v(U 
tfctffav, 6vvto/xov 8i8a6xa%lav £y#fi£fc'tfa$, trjv 8id tov jSaiitia/jiatos.— 
S. Chrysost. in Matt. Horn. xc. 



iv.] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



157 



tained under it ; so that while the sum is given, all is given, 
— while the great comprehensive truth is taught, nothing is 
omitted. 

Be it observed, then, that it is given, comprehensive and 
vast as it is, in a short unexplained summary — unexplained 
either at the time when it was given, or in any recorded dis- 
courses before. Much doctrine, indeed, had been delivered, 
which would tend to fill up, illustrate, and confirm it, and 
many things had been said on which it would throw back the 
full and clear illustration of its own bright light ; but the 
doctrine in its completeness, the doctrine as herein revealed, 
was new to the Apostles as well as to the world. Even the 
separate portions of it were but scantily and darkly indicated 
in previous discourses; for even in St. John's Gospel the 
promises of "another Comforter," "a living water," "a 
guide into all truth," gave but small doctrinal declaration of 
the nature and person of the Divine Holy G-host ; but as a 
complex and full revelation of the Godhead, the doctrine of 
the sacred and indivisible Trinity, of the one God in three 
Persons, was absolutely undeclared until our Lord sent his 
Apostles forth to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them 
into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost. But in this official, sacred summary, it is given, con- 
veyed, intrusted. As Moses was sent to deliver the Israelites 
out of Egyptian captivity, and his commission was the name 
I am, so the Apostles were sent to all the world to turn them 
" from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God," and their credentials were the sacred Name of the 
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Name was 
given to them, and to them only, to their keeping. It was 
their holy deposit, and they knew not yet the treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge, of grace and salvation, which were 
hidden in it. They were directed to baptize into it ; but the 
details, the mysteries, the distant and various bearings of this 
great doctrine, were not yet made known to them, The Holy 

14 



158 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. 



Ghost, who was about to descend on the day of Pentecost, 
should bring all things to their knowledge and remembrance, 
said darkly, summarily, or, as it were, cursorily, by their 
Master — He should guide them into all truth, and enable 
them to fill up and articulate those great outlines of doctrine 
which were thus given to them by their Divine Teacher. 

Accordingly, it is probable that from this holy name, thus 
given to the Apostles, came all dogmatic teaching in the 
Church. From this, as from a fountain head, they derived 
all their streams of sacred Christian doctrine. " From this 
sacred form of Baptism," 7 says Bishop Pearson, "did the 
Church derive the rule of faith, requiring the profession of 
belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Grhost, before they could 
be baptized in their name. "When the eunuch asked Philip, 
What doth hinder me to be baptized ? Philip said, If thou be- 
lievest ivith all thine heart, thou may est ; and when the eunuch 
replied, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he bap- 
tized him. And before that, the Samaritans, when they 
believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom 
of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, were baptized, both 
men and women. For as in the Acts of the Apostles there is 
no more expressed than that they baptized in the name of 
Jesus Christ; so is no more expressed of the faith required 
in them who were to be baptized, than to believe in the same 
name. But being the Father and the Holy Grhost were like- 
wise mentioned in the first institution, being the expressing 
of one doth not exclude the other, being it is certain from the 
Apostles' times the names of all three were used ; hence, upon 
the same ground was required faith, and a profession of belief 
in the Father, Son, and Holy Grhost." 

Of the details, indeed, and particulars of the dogmatic 
teaching of the Apostles, they have left very small written 
record. We know that they taught dogmatically; we know 

7 V. Bp. Pearson on the Creed, art. i. p. 55. Cf. art. via. p. 499, and 
art. ix. p. 512. 



IV.] THE SACRED NAME. 159 

that the writings of the New Testament are not their dogmatic 
teaching. Those writings are without exception addressed to 
persons already instructed, already put in charge of the sacred 
deposit of Christian truth by the sacrament of Baptism. It is 
true, indeed, that they were so directed by the Holy Spirit in 
writing these apparently casual and unconnected pieces, that 
no portion of the mass of divinely revealed truth lacks written 
proof or confirmation from some part or other of their writings. 
But that truth is nowhere exhibited entire, nowhere system- 
atically or theologically stated as in a creed or catechism, 
nowhere so stated as it was used for purposes of instruction 
or profession. But very shortly after they were dead, their 
contemporaries and successors began to state and write down 
in books the great outlines of their systematic teaching, and 
the principal heads of doctrine which they delivered, and 
required to be professed by persons to be baptized ; and thus 
the Apostles' Creed 8 came to be acknowledged, all the 
Church over, as the genuine summary of all great and funda- 
mental truths as taught by the Apostles. 

Be it observed, then, that the Apostles' Creed is the first 
doctrinal expansion made theologically and with authority in 
the Church of the great Name of God, the baptismal tradition. 
Just outside of the canon of actual Scripture, and not claiming 
a literal inspiration like that of actual Scripture, it is never- 
theless the earliest historical record of the systematic doctrine 
of the Apostles. And it, according to the summary of it given 
in the Church Catechism, 9 teaches the doctrine of (1) God the 

8 King's Hist, of the Apostles' Creed, ch. i. (pp. 34 — 44, 2nd ed. Lond. 
1703.) Bingham's Antiq., b. xi. ch. vii. 5, 8. Bp. Pearson on the Creed 
vol. i. p. 499, 512 ; ii. p. 6, 26. 

9 The person baptized acknowledges these three, (the Holy Persons,) 
and by desiring baptism, makes profession of that acknowledgment, which 
is, in effect, the sum of the whole creed, which that catechism excellently 
abbreviates by saying that the chief things learnt in these articles are, 
first, to believe in God the Father, &c. — Hammond, Practical Catechism, 
b. vi. c. 2. 



160 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. 



Father, who hath made me, and all the world : (2) God the 
Son, who hath redeemed nie, and all mankind : (3) God the 
Holy Ghost, who sactifieth me, and all the elect people of 
God. The Apostles' Creed is the earliest, simplest, and most 
Apostolical expansion or enlargement of the sum of doctrine 
given by onr Lord in the great baptismal tradition. And the 
second ecclesiastical development of the same great doctrine 
is the Creed of Nicasa and Constantinople, the Nicene Creed ; 
and the third and last is the Creed of St. Athanasius. Since 
then the Universal Church knows no creed. 

That the baptismal form was thus, as a matter of fact, 
expanded or developed into the Creed, seems to be very clear, 
for many reasons, and not the least, because we find several 
instances in which forms of Creed, very similar to it in general 
construction, are expressly traced to that source. Such 1 is 
the Creed of Arius and Euzoius, delivered to Constantine : 
" This faith we have received from the Holy Evangelists, the 
Lord having said to his disciples, Go, make disciples of all 
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost/' upon the exhibition of 
which confession of faith they were restored to the communion 
of the Church by the Synod of Jerusalem. In the same 
manner, Eusebius (of Csesarea) gave in a copy of the Creed, 
by which he was catechized, baptized, and consecrated, to the 
Council of Nice, concluding and deducing it from the same 
text. u As our Lord, sending forth his disciples to preach, 
said, Go, make disciples of all nations," &c. The same is also 
alleged by the Council of Antioch, under the emperor Con- 
stantius and pope Julius. So also Vigilius Tapsensis makes 
Arius and Athanasius jointly speak these words : " We believe 
in God the Father Almighty, and in J esus Christ his Son our 
Lord, and in the Holy Ghost. This is the rule of our faith, 

1 This passage is taken from the notes to Bishop Pearson on the Creed, 
art. i. (vol. ii. p. 55. cf. vol. i. pp. 499, 512 ; ii. p. 26.) 



IV.] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



161 



which the Lord, with heavenly command, delivered to the 
Apostles, saying, Go, baptize," &c. 

Thus is the great baptismal tradition, 2 the Name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the sum of 
Creeds. Enlarged and unfolded during four centuries, accord- 
ing to the needs of the Church, and the various assaults of 
heresy, the great baptismal commission, — the doctrine of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, — has been, 
throughout the history of the Church, her possession, her sum 
of truth, her sacred deposit; that which she hath maintained 
against adversaries, rightly divided to her children ; that with 
which she hopes to meet her Lord when He returns to 
judgment. 

It is highly important, in tracing this great and, as we 
believe, single development of the Christian summary of truth 
into the form of an extended dogmatic Creed, to observe the 
principles which appear to direct and limit the application of 
the developing power ; not only because it much concerns the 
well-being of the Church that her real authority to divide the 
word of truth should not in any respect be injuriously ques- 
tioned or denied, but still more because it is plain that any 
unduly allowed claim of development would afford a ready and 
irresistible defence to any sort of corruption of doctrine, however 
far removed from the real matter of the original Revelation. 

Let it, then, be observed, that the development of the 
Creeds, though often spoken of as if it were a simple and 
uniform one, is really a complex or twofold one. The one 
portion is, (1) Apostolic, (2) of truths, and (3) affirmative; 
the other, (1) ecclesiastical, -if I may so term it, (2) of words, 
and (3) negative. 

The Apostolic development is the Apostles' Creed. This 
is the summary of what they taught ; of what they held to be 
fundamental ; of what they catechized with ; of what they 



* V. Appendix. T e Baptismal form the sum of Creeds. 
14* 



162 



THE SACRED NAME, 



[DISC. 



required to be professed in holy Baptism. Possessing this, 
men possessed the word of truth ; holding this, no doubt the 
promises made to faith were assured to them. With this they 
might pass from glory to glory, and be gradually transfigured 
to some faint shining of likeness to their Lord. 

Here indeed is an affirmative development of matters of 
faith. The name of God is expanded into three paragraphs. 
Each is replete with Divine truth ; each particular is vital ; 
several of the particulars (as, for instance, the doctrine of the 
resurrection of the body,) are not directly or obviously con- 
tained in the original form of the deposit of truth. But all 
together constitute the sum or body of the faith once delivered 
to the saints. 

Of this affirmative Apostolic development it is of the utmost 
consequence to observe, that it is in every particular supported, 
confirmed, and filled up by the Apostolic Scriptures. That 
which the Apostles taught orally, they also wrote. They 
indeed did not write it formally, or dogmatically, nor are the 
theological statements of the Apostles' Creed to be found all 
laid together, or set out for statement or proof in any part of 
their letters. But every particular of that Creed, by the good 
providence of God, is also amply written ; and as in the case 
of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, just referred 
to, it pleased God that St. Paul should write the 15th chapter 
of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, so throughout do the 
affirmative developments of the Apostles rest on two columns, 
— the dogmatic column of their Creed, and the epistolary 
column of their letters. 

But the other two Creeds, wherein they differ from the 
Apostles' Creed, differ from it essentially. They no longer 
expound new matters of faith ; they no longer develope new 
truths ; they no longer map out, as it were, new regions of 
the Church's doctrinal empire ; as, indeed, how should they, 
if the engrafted word, able to save men's souls, were fully and 
faithfully delivered already ? 



IV-] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



163 



On the contrary, the doctrinal decisions of the Church, as 
made in the later Creeds, are, 

1. Logical only; consisting in words, and not in truths. 
The Church rather adjusts language in them than discovers 
truth. She is occupied with the exact arrangement of expres- 
sions. She decides that such and such modes of stating; the 
doctrine already held by her, are wrong and inadequate to the 
truth which she believes, and such and such other ones right, 
and, as far as may be, adequate. 

2. And, secondly, negative. She is driven to say all this, 
not so much for its own proper affirmative force and import- 
ance, as because the various incorrect methods of expression 
adopted by other teachers, endanger the truth and simplicity 
of the doctrines which she holds. She finds, by degrees, the 
necessity of more precise language ; but her precision is, if I 
may so term it, protestant, — protestant against error; nega- 
tive, — negative of heresy. And this is not the less true, 
though the form of her decisions be dogmatic and affirmative. 
She uses her penetrating exactnesses of speech in order to 
deny and repel. She identifies and concentrates her already 
possessed truth, in order to precipitate and expose error. She 
teaches no more than she taught before, but erroneous forms 
of thought and phrase compel her to borrow the terms of 
philosophy, and to select with delicacy, and almost subtlety of 
discrimination, the exactly balanced words in which she shall 
clothe her teaching. Thus the close examination of the great 
original development, appears to disclose a double law, (a law 
analogous to many natural laws, in which a process is often 
continued up to a certain point, and then apparently reversed,) 
under which affirmative development of matters of faith seems 
to be limited to the Apostolic days, to the Apostles, and to 
such dogmas, as by a divinely ordered coincidence, if I may 
so express myself, are also fully written in the inspired Scrip- 
tures : and negative development is the perpetual defensive 
duty of the Church of God. 



164 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. 



This distinction between the two kinds of development 
appears to suggest at once the nature and the limits of the 
power which the continuing Church possesses of developing. 

Can she add to the original stock of affirmative. Apostolical 
truth ? 

Surely not. For in the first place such a power supposes 
the continuance of Apostolic inspiration in all ages of the 
Church subsequent to the death of the Apostles, — a claim 
unheard of in any age of Christendom, and widely different 
from the power of judging of truth which, in whatever manner 
and with whatever limitations, has always been accorded to 
the true Church of God. 

Again; such a claim assumes the insufficiency, for the 
salvation of future generations, of the original revelation of 
truth as explicitly taught by the Apostles, and believed in the 
Churches ; and the consequent necessity of further discoveries 
of doctrine to supply the need. But not only is such an idea 
to be entirely rejected as a fiction of later ages, and a grievous 
disparagement of the Divine truth originally given, but it is 
also expressly negatived by the various and often repeated 
words of Holy Scripture, which in three different ways seem 
to exclude all further developments of this kind. 

1. By denouncing them. For what can be stronger, or 
more to the point, than St. Paul's language to the Galatians 
against those who should preach another Gospel (which is not 
another, but a perversion of the true) than that which he had 
preached to the Galatians, and they had already received ? 
« Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other 
Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, 
let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, 
If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye 
have received, let him be accursed." 3 

2. By pronouncing the Revelation, as already given and 



3 Gal. i. 8, 9. 



IV.] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



165 



received, final. St. Paul tells the uninspired Corinthian con- 
verts, that " the ends of the world" 4 were come upon them, 
by which phrase he means, that the old types and prophecies 
were now all fulfilled, and that the " last days," the days, that 
is, of the final and long expected realities were arrived. Again, 
he tells the Hebrews that the ancient patriarchs, though they 
" obtained a good report through faith, yet received not the 
promise,"— iliey lived under a progressive, developing dis- 
pensation, which ever looked forward to a further end, — 
" God having provided some better thing" for the Christians 
even of the first generation, whereby they and the ancients 
might "be made perfect" together, — "looking unto Jesus, 
the Author and Finisher of their faith." 5 

3. By declaring, in every variety of phrase and manner, 
the full sufficiency of the revelation, as already given and 
received, for the salvation of man. "The engrafted word, 
which is able to save your souls." "Ye rejoice with joy 
unspeakable, and full of glory : receiving the end of your 
faith, even the salvation of your souls." " Being born again — ■ 
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." 6 
" The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that 
we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, 
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the 
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as 
have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." 7 " Christ 
J esus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, 
and sanctification, and redemption." "Ye are washed, ye 
are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
and by the Spirit of our God." 8 

Having then absolutely no power at all to add to the matter 
of original revelation, as once delivered to the Saints, what 
authority does the Church possess of judging of doctrine, of 

4 1 Cor. x. 11. 5 Heb. xi. 39, 40 ; xii. 2. 

6 1 Pet. i. 8, 9, 23. 7 Gal. iii. 24—27. 

8 1 Cor. i. 30 ; vi. 11. 



166 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. 



recognizing her own perpetual inheritance, and defensively 
defining the truth which she believes against the errors and 
heresies of later times ? 

It is plain, that the promise of being led into all truth by 
the perpetual indwelling of the Holy Ghost, was, after the 
death of the Apostles and inspired Teachers of the New Testa- 
ment, no longer assured to any individuals specified by name 
or station in the Church. It had been given to the Church, 
and the Church possessed it. It had been given to all, and 
all shared it alike. No single person could be absolutely 
safe from error, but the gates of hell should never prevail 
against the universal Church. Error and heresy might creep 
in or spread, but the promise was sure, that what the univer- 
sal Church, with one consenting voice, held, should be true. 
The truth of God was in such sort her gift and inheritance, 
that what all the Church in all the world taught, should be 
undoubtedly that very faith of which she was constituted the 
ground and pillar. 

If it follows from this promise that the universal Church 
of God is infallible, it follows equally that such a diffused in- 
fallibility can be exercised only very seldom, and in defence. 
Very many conditions are requisite before any such decisions 
can be pronounced at all ; when pronounced, it must needs be 
long before the universal recognition of Christendom imparts 
to them their full authority. The universal Church cannot 
give away to one or more rulers her own divine gift ; she can- 
not alienate her own precious possession. She may speak 
in her Bishops, but she cannot abdicate her own authority 
of deciding ultimately in herself. She may utter by her 
Bishops in council the " senatus consulta" of doctrine, but she 
retains in herself the inalienable right of finally authorizing, 
by long continued acceptance and recognition, the decrees of 
divine truth implicitly contained in her original charter of 
faith. 

In like manner the universal Church, possessed of such a 



IV.] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



167 



diffused infallibility, seems capable only of speaking in de- 
fence. She must be moved to speak. Doctrines do not need 
definition till they are denied. Her old simple inherited 
language is enough, till new-invented heresy necessitates new 
methods and depths of expression. 

It seems therefore plain, that this power in the Church of 
defining Christian doctrine, of developing, if it is to be so 
called, defensively, cannot be fully exercised unless the 
Church is fully at unity in herself. United in a single body, 
if she recognizes and receives, as a faithful exposition of the 
Divine mind that is in her, the decisions of any council, her 
voice is authoritative, and not to be gainsaid. Divided, and 
rent into portions, she loses authority as she loses universality. 
The voice of a part of the Church, is no longer the glorious 
voice of the Church Catholic, the irresistible words of the 
beloved Spouse of Christ. 

Once, indeed, she spoke with such a voice, and challenged 
and received the submission of Christendom to her Nicene and 
Athanasian Creeds. And by the good providence of G-od, 
the doctrine of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Grhost, 
" the Catholic Faith," was defensively established before the 
deep and melancholy rent, which made over the West of 
Christendom to usurpation, and its dire effects in schism and 
disunion, took away from her for ages the power of speaking 
with united and authoritative accents. 

But since that time she has felt, and felt increasingly, the 
wounds of many divisions. It is no doubt, her duty still to 
defend, as she best may, her inheritance. In the attempt to 
discharge this duty she has, with her enfeebled powers and 
essentially imperfect authority, put forth in various lands 
articles, confessions, and terms of communion. 

Whereinsoever, then, such documents, issued in days of 
division, add to the mass of affirmatively developed truth, 
there they would seem presumptuously to usurp ; whereinso- 
ever they endeavour to identify and fix the precisely accurate 



168 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. 



statements of Apostolic truth, there they endeavour to do that 
which is, essentially, within the province of the successive and 
inheriting Church of God, provided always that they travel 
not beyond the original decrees of Apostolically taught, and 
scripturally proved doctrine, and claim no more than their 
proportionate and scanty powers, as emanating from a portion 
only of the holy Church of Christ. 

The sacred name of God is also given to be the holy name 
of the Church. Called " Christians," not without Divine direc- 
tion, 9 at Antioch, as partakers of the Divine name and nature, 
admitted into the fellowship and unity of the body of Christ, 
we are become his people, and are admitted into the holiest 
of all names, the name of God. 1 As the Jews, in comparison 
of all the nations of the world, were called by His name, who 
bore rule over them, so is there now a heavenly name, the name 
of God, for them who were no people, but in Christ have 
become a sacred people. The holy name has been called over 
us, and by that holy name we are called. 2 

9 Vide Hammond, Aimot. on Heb. xii. 25; and Schjeusner, sub voc. 

1 Isa. lxv. 1 ; lxiii. 19. Nam omnis congregatio cujusque regionis 
nomen sibi vindicate consuevit, ut iEgyptii, iEthiopes, Syri, Judcei, 
Arabes provincial suse terrarumque suarum vocabulum prsefemnt: nos 
de diversis populis congregati, vocabulum nobis unius gentis non possumus 
usurpare, et ideo quia nomen non babebamus interris, de coelo accepimus, 
ut Christi populus dicer emur. — S. Ambros. Enarr. in Ps. xxxvi. 7. (vol. 
i. p. 170.) 

Et exaltabit cornu Christi sui. Quomodo Christus exaltabit comu 
Christi sui ? De quo enim supra dictum est, Dominus ascendit in ccelos, et 
intellectus est Dominus Cbristus, ipse, sicut hie dictum est, exaltabit' comu 
Cliristi sui. Quis ergo est Christus Christi sui ? An cornu exaltabit 
uniuscujusque fidelis sui, sicut ista ipsa in principio hujus hymni ait } 
Exaltatum est cornu meum in Deo meo ? Omnes quippe unctos ejus 
chrismate, recte christos possumus dicere, quod tamen totum cum suo 
capite corpus, unus est Cbristus — S. August, de Civ. Dei, lib. xvii. c. iv. 

Omnes Christianos dicimus propter mysticum chrisma. — Ibid. lib. xx. 
c. x. 

3 St. James ii. 7. cf. Acts xv. 17. 1 Cor. i. 2, and Hammond's Com- 
mentary, 



IV.] 



THE SACRED NAME, 



169 



To each separate Christian, his own Christian name is the 
separate token of his belonging to the body, whose name is 
thus the name of God. It was given to him when first he 
was planted into the life-giving body. It denotes promise, 
like the new names of Abram, Sarai, and Jacob ; subjection, 
like the new names of the J ewish kings ; belief, like the new 
Christian names of Simon, and Saul the persecutor. It 
denotes his new estate, as a member of Christ, the child of 
God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. It is his 
earnest of that new name, which God will give to him that 
overcometh, which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it ; 3 
the name of God, and the name of the city of God ) that 
name of the Father of the Lamb, to be written on the fore- 
heads of the Saints. 

But beyond and above the holiness of this great name, re- 
garded as the sum of Christian truth, and the name of the 
Church, is its mysterious sanctity, when viewed as the sacred 
precinct into which disciples are by holy Baptism received, 
the presence of God Himself. 4 Forthwith, on passing through 
the mystical washing, we are made disciples into the kingdom 
of heaven. 5 We are in Christ. 6 Then all these great and 
wonderful sayings become applicable to us, to our bliss, or to 
our confusion, which are scattered in such profusion through- 
out the Apostolical epistles. We become partakers of the 
Divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world 
through lust f our citizenship is in heaven ; s we have access 
by one Spirit unto the Father ; we are fellow-citizens with the 
Saints, and of the household of God; we are made to sit 
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus ; we " are come 
unto the Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God," 

3 Kev. ii. 17 ; iii. 12 ; xiv. 1. 

4 Prov. vxiii. 10. 

5 fxaOqtsvQsis ri? tip j3affi?iEtW. — St. Matt. xiii. 52. 

6 Rom. xii. 5 ; xvi. 7. 1 Cor. iii. 1 ; iv. 16, &c» 

7 2 St. Peter i, 4. 8 Phil, iii, 20, Eph. ii. 18, 19. 6, 
15 



170 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[Disc- 



that city u which the glory of God doth lighten, and the 
Lamb is the light thereof/' " the heavenly Jerusalem, and to 
an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly 
and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and 
to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made 
perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant/' 9 
Then prayers are heard, not only because in Christ we have 
our separate access to the Father by the Spirit, but still more, 
because wheresoever two or three have been gathered into the 
name of Christ, there is He, whom the Father always heareth, 
in the midst of them. 1 Then Christians, all together, become 
the true temple of the living God, as God hath said, " I will 
dwell in them, and walk in them ; and I will be their God, 
and they shall be my people." 3 Then he that overcometh 
shall be made a pillar in the temple of God, and he shall no 
more go out. 3 

Thus, on every side of us, do we find the sacred name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It is 
over us as a name and appellation, it is in our mouths as our 
glorious confession unto salvation, it encircles us as our Divine 
protection and defence. No hand of man, nor power of evil 
spirit, can ever tear us from our tower of strength, which is 
the name of God. No grace, nor favour, nor help of God, can 
ever be wanting to those who are called by His name, who 
dwell for ever in His holy fellowship, whose lips are permitted 
to turn every ascription of Jewish praise of Jehovah into the 
" glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ; 
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world 
without end. Amen." 

Only let us see, that in all our hearts and lives ever hal- 
lowed be his name ! Most holy it is in itself; be it treated as 
holy : reverently, awfully, devoutly hallowed by us. As a 



9 Heb. xii. 22—24. Rev. xxi. 23. 
2 2 Cor. vi. 16. 



1 St. Matt, xviii. 20, 
3 Rev. iii. 12. 



IV.] 



THE SACRED NAME. 



171 



name, let us hallow it, by using it with devout and sacred 
frequency in prayer, by refraining with the most anxious and 
conscientious diligence from all light, or casual, or irreverent 
use of it at other times. As a nature, let us hallow it by the 
most wary and careful thoughts, conscious that He is in hea- 
ven and we upon earth ; conscious that at the most we see 
but the skirts of his adorable and immortal Being ; let us 
studiously and anxiously keep within the words of the holy 
Scripture and the Creeds, in expressing ourselves about it, 
nor ever speak of it without the present consciousness of his 
greatness, and nearness, and most awful majesty. As the 
presence of God on earth, let us hallow it by duty to God in 
the Church, the body of Christ ; by submission, — holy, active 
subjection; by seeing Him ever in His earthly ministers, 
people, rites, ordinances, judgments, mercies ; by feeling our- 
selves already living in His continual sight and presence ; His 
eye upon our bodies and our souls, upon our thoughts, our 
words, and deeds; His Spirit striving in our hearts with 
increasing or decaying grace, according to our increasing 
or decaying efforts to cherish it ; His holy Son not far 
from every one of us, 4 who are planted into His body, buried 
into His death, risen with His resurrection, fed with His 
sacred body and blood, who are, unless we be reprobates, 
living stones of the most holy temple, in which He abideth 
for ever, even unto the end of the world. As a profession, 
let us hallow it, by holding it fast, and never swerving, in 
liberal word, or wavering thought, or inconsistent deed, from 

4 Severianus (apud Suicerum sub voce ovo/xa) : c Ayia<y0j^ w to ovopd 
6ov ov%i oti vrtsg tov dvo/xatos tov Qsov £v%6ixs9ct, (to yap oVo/ua avtov 
ayid&o rtdvta,) aMS FrtsiSav to oVo^a avtov tTiixkx'Krit ai (Kgttitiavoi, 
yap drto XgKJfou xahov/Asda) Ksysi, To ovo^a gov r t (xlv aycaaOiqtcd. 
Improbat Suicerus, sed adi S. Cyprianum de Orat. Dom. " Sanctificetur 
nomen tuum, non quod optemus Deo, ut sanctificetur orationibus nostris, 
sed quod petamusex eo,ut nomen ejus sanctificetur in nobis : — id petimus 
et rogamus, ut qui in baptismo sanctificati sumus, in eo quod esse coepimus 
perseveremus, et hoc quotidie deprecamur." 



172 



THE SACRED NAME. 



[DISC. IV.] 



its simple sacred, divine firmness. It admitted lis to the mili- 
tant kingdom ; kept whole and undefiled from heretical taint, 
or falling away of sin, it shall admit us to the triumphant. 
" For if baptism/' says the great St. Basil, speaking of the 
holy baptismal tradition of the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, " is the beginning of my life, 
and the day of my regeneration to me the first of days ; 
surely, the words which were uttered when the grace of son- 
ship was given to me, are the most precious of all words. 
Shall I then ever betray the tradition which thus introduced 
me to the light, through which I was declared the child of 
of God, who before that time had been his enemy through 
sin, because I am deceived by the specious arguments of men ? 
Nay, rather, I pray in my heart that I may, with this confes- 
sion on my lips, depart hence unto the Lord/' 5 



e St. Basil de Sp. S. c. x. 



DISCOURSE V. 



yag #agt,f&' sate G£0u)6fxivov dca rtiaifsos' xal tov-to ovx i% 

V(A.ZjV, ©£Ol5 to SwgOJ/. 

For by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves ; it 
is the gift of God.— Eph. ii. 8. 

. 

Besides the general commission of the Church to occupy 
the Lord's place upon the earth, and the particular offices and 
powers entrusted to the Apostles as governors and teachers, 
our holy Lord did also, in the great Forty Days of His remain- 
ing upon earth in His glorified body, say very gracious things 
of the privileges and blessings which should belong to the 
separate individuals who by Holy Baptism should be grafted 
rightly into His Church. 

The first of these is thus given by St. Mark : " He that 
believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved." 1 

This saying, regarded in connexion with the words that 
precede it in St. Mark's Gospel, seems in the first place to 
point out who are the fit subjects for Holy Baptism. Sent 
out into all the world to make disciples of all nations, by what 
rule were the Apostles to proceed in admitting persons to the 
great Name with which they were entrusted ? What was to 
be the qualification for baptism ? what the attainment which 
should fit persons to be taken out of heathenism, out of the 
power of Satan, and admitted into the kingdom of G-od, the 



1 St. Mark,"xvi. 16, 
15* 



174 PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. [DISC- 

mysterious and saving Name of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost ? These words supply the true answer to such a 
question. " He that believeth" may be baptized. " If thou 
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest," 2 were the express 
words of the deacon Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch. " He 
that believeth/' but what ? What is the truth, the message, 
the doctrine to be delivered by the Apostles, and believed in 
all the world ? No doubt, as it has been fully explained in 
the last discourse, the Name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost. So in effect, and almost in words, 
the eunuch confessed; so Timothy doubtless professed his 
good profession before many witnesses; 3 so Christians have 
made profession at the holy font of baptism in every age of 
the Church's history. 

But there is no need to enter further than has been done 
already into the illustration of this point. We must now 
rather ask, What is it to believe ? What is the nature of 
that belief or faith of which our Lord herein speaks ? What 
is that faith which qualifies for baptism, and which, with bap- 
tism, gives salvation ? which may, and by God's help shall, 
perform miracles? which is doubly blest when unaided by 
sight ? What is, as nearly as we may be able to ascertain it, 
the exact nature of faith, that virtue which precedes and 
follows baptism, the gift of God, whose early beginnings fit a 
man for the justification of baptism, whose later maturity 
perfects him for final acceptance, the title, from the first to 
the last, of the just man's life ? 

If ever there were a word which requires clear definition, 
that word is faith, respecting which there is apparently such 
deep and sore disagreement among Christians ; to which there 
are attached so many meanings and shades of meaning; 
respecting which no man seems to doubt when he uses it, that 
he understands fully what he means, and is in no danger of 
being misunderstood by others. 

2 Acts viii. 37. 3 1 Tim. vi. 12. 



v.] 



PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. 



175 



The word faith, then, appears to be used in Holy Scripture 
in several senses, differing, some of them, widely from one 
another. For instance, (1) in one place it means certainty of 
mind, or undoubtingness ; and in this use 4 it does not neces- 
sarily refer to Christian doctrine at all. In this sense, to have 
faith is to be quite sure, to have no doubt. Again, (2) faith, 
or the faith, is used to signify the whole mass of Christian 
doctrines, as in the expression, " the faith once delivered to 
the saints." 5 Again, (3) faith is used in a sense akin to the 
last, but not identical with it, for the Christian system : not 
expressly as in the last instance, for the objective doctrines of 
Christian revelation, but for that system, or body of religion, 
in which men are taught that salvation is obtained, not by 
their own earnings, but by the sacrifice of the death of Christ. 
This is the sense which seems to run through the argumenta- 
tive portions of the Epistle to the Komans. Fourthly, (4) 
faith is used to signify simple intellectual belief. This is the 
sense in which St. James speaks of it in the passage of his 
Epistle in which he contra-distinguishes it from works, and 
in which St. Paul speaks of it when he distinguishes it from 
love, or from hope and charity. Fifthly, (5) it is used 6 to 
signify all sorts of human virtue, grounded on the belief in 
divinely revealed truth. This is the sense in which, as will 
be presently explained, it is often used by our Lord in the 
Gospels. There are also two or three other subordinate senses 
of the word faith, such as that in which it signifies (6) a pro- 
mise, 7 or (7) faithful people, 8 (8) fidelity or faithfulness f but 
these are senses from which no doctrinal confusion is likely 
to arise, and which may for the present purpose be wholly 
neglected. 

Of these various senses, the greater number are plainly 
irrelevant to the present subject. The fourth and fifth are 



4 See Rom: xiv. 22, 23. 
6 v. Appendix on Faith. 
9 Rom. i. IT. 



5 Jude 3, &c. 
7 1 Tim. v. 12. 
9 Tit. ii. 10. 



176 PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. [DISC. 

the only two which it is necessary to consider. In the former 
of these senses faith signifies mere simple belief. According 
to the usual way of speaking upon these subjects, mere belief 
is commonly called an act of the purely intellectual, in oppo- 
sition to the moral part of the mind ; and though this kind of 
expression is so far dangerous, as it may lead us to think that 
our minds are really made up of different parts or portions 
capable of separate existence or action, yet it is convenient, as 
it enables us to form a clear conception of the nature of mere 
belief abstractedly regarded. This mere belief then may be 
by us abstractedly regarded without any reference whatever to 
the state of will and affections in the person believing. It 
may be found accompanied with love, gratitude, obedience ; 
it may co-exist with hatred, fear, and misery. It is in itself 
neither good nor bad ; but it becomes either eminently pleas- 
ing or displeasing to God, according as it has its place in a 
good or an evil heart, and is followed by growth of holy or 
unholy feelings. In this abstract sense St. James uses the 
word faith, when he says, 1 that the devils also believe and 
tremble. They believe, but not one feeling, affection, or 
practical inclination proper to such belief is theirs. They 
believe and hate ; they believe and shun ; they believe and 
tremble. 

Yet it is not to be forgotten, indeed it is of the first conse- 
quence to remember, that though in its purely abstract nature 
mere belief has no quality of goodness or acceptableness with 
God, yet, in man, belief in the truths of Christian revelation 
cannot but be acceptable with Him, inasmuch as it cannot be 
admitted by the intellect except through the medium of the 
will. If its evidence were demonstrative, or if it were merely 
such as the natural intellect of man could sufficiently judge 
of, then, indeed, the presence of religious belief would be no 
more acceptable with God than that of mathematical or other 



e i St. James ii. 19. 



V.] PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. 177 

natural knowledge. It might show dutiful assiduity, or laud- 
able anxiety of improvement, but in itself it would be disjoined 
from what is moral, and by consequence from what is good. 
But being, as it is, of a wholly different nature, being such as 
requires humility and reverence of mind, consciousness of sin 
and weakness, and love and fear of Grod, before it can be 
adequately appreciated, even the mere intellectual belief in 
Christian truth is a condition to which a perverse and sinful 
human heart cannot arrive. Faith, then, in the mere sense 
of belief, must of necessity be the gift of God. To believe, 
then, with the intellect, as it is, on the one hand, a token of 
a good heart opened by the Lord to believe, and gracious 
affections, so, on the other, it lifts the heart and affections to 
address themselves to higher objects, and gives them a more 
exalted and diviner scope and range of action. 

Still, however, though this be true, it does not appear that 
intellectual belief in the truth of divine doctrines is all that 
our Lord intends, when He says to his Apostles, " He that 
believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." It is no doubt a 
part of saving faith ; the first and fundamental part ; but it is 
not all. Alone (if it could exist alone in man, as it may by 
us be regarded alone) it would certainly be insufficient, as we 
have the authority of the Apostle St. James 3 for asserting, to 
do these great things for us which the Lord here attributes to 
faith. It is the basis, the foundation, the necessary beginning, 
insomuch that we may truly say, that whosoever will be saved 
by Holy Baptism, before all things it is necessary that he thus 
hold and believe the sacred doctrine of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Grhost. 

But beyond this confined and more peculiar sense of the 
word faith, there is another, of somewhat laxer and less strict 
kind, in which the word is commonly used in Holy Scripture, 
particularly by our blessed Lord Himself. In this sense it 



2 St. James ii. 14. 



178 



PRIVILEGES OP THE BAPTIZED. 



means Christian virtue : the whole superstructure, if I may so 
express myself, of acts inward and outward, acts whether 
buried in the recesses of the heart, or exhibiting themselves 
outwardly in visible external deeds ; of virtuous acts of every 
sort and kind, done because of the belief in Christian truth, 
and addressed to God by Christian truth made known to us. 
These acts are sometimes, in their own kind, acts of bravery 
(acts, that is, of the noble habit which, helped by God's grace, 
and governed by a spiritually enlightened conscience, makes 
a man act bravely in respect of his natural emotion of fear), 
sometimes of humility, sometimes of modesty, sometimes of 
other separate and distinguishable virtues ; but inasmuch as 
in every case the acts are done by reason of the belief which 
a man reposes in revealed truth, and are addressed to God, 
they go by the general name of faith. Faith is in this large 
sense human virtue, when it rises out of the belief in revealed 
truth ; Christian faith is all virtue proper to or rising out of 
the belief in the Christian revelation of the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 

But why, it may be asked, should acts like these be called 
faith ? Is not the nature of virtue essentially dissimilar from 
that of faith ? Does not faith mean belief? and is not belief 
a different thing in kind from virtuous action ? 

No doubt, in strictness, belief is, as already explained, a 
different thing from virtue. But by a very natural, and 
common laxity of speech, the word belief, or faith, is taken, 
in a larger way, to comprehend within the scope of its mean- 
ing those things which are proper consequences and fruits of 
belief. And such virtue may not improperly be called faith 
or belief, partly because it is founded upon faith or belief, 
strictly so called, as upon a necessary basis ; and partly because 
(this belief making known the invisible God, the invisible 
world, the invisible rewards) its essential and characteristic 
nature is a faithful resignation or consignation of a man's 
whole self, in soul and body, into the hands and government 



V.] PRIVILEGES OP THE BAPTIZED. 179 

of that invisible God, a living even while in the flesh with 
the ever-conscious nearness of that invisible world, an address- 
ing of every thought of the heart, every word of the lips, 
every secret and every public act, to those distant and invisible 
rewards. 

It is not one virtue among virtues, one grace among graces, 
one flower of the garland of goodness, one human excellence 
selected from amongst, or holding rank with or above others. 
Faith is not one virtue, and courage, modesty, temperance, 
compassion, other virtues. Each and all of these are Christian 
faith in the larger sense, in so far forth as the deeds proper to 
them are done because of Christian belief, and are addressed 
to the invisible God, and the invisible rewards. He who 
is brave, loving, just, modest, earnest in prayer, holy, self- 
denying, because of Christian belief and the invisible God, is 
therein faithful. Every act of Christian bravery, of Christian 
modesty, of each Christian virtue, is not only such, but it is 
also a venture, a venture on the strength of believed truth, a 
venture for God, a venture in order to please Him, and win 
his favour. It is faith ; and faith is virtue venturing. Belief 
gives eyes to virtue, and then virtue ventures : and faith, as 
in its stricter sense it is confined to the sight-giving belief, so 
in its more comprehensive use it includes this noble venturing 
virtue. 

Nor, again, is it proper to say that faith is the inward prin- 
ciple or secret feeling of trust and reliance upon God, and all 
those habitual virtues the fruits or consequences of it. Each 
virtue springeth in its own feelings. Each virtue secretly 
germinates in unseen and secret movements, deep in the heart. 
Each virtue doth root itself directly upon the revealed truths. 
There needeth not, nor is there any intermediate fiduciary 
state of mind between belief and virtues, to be, as it were, a 
moral soil of virtue, metaphysically distinguishable from 
virtue, and of different acceptableness from virtue in the eyes 
of God, 



180 PRIVILEGES OP THE BAPTIZED. [DISC. 

The first voluntary feelings of love, reliance, humility, self- 
denial, — the first moral energies which spring towards God 
when in a good heart belief begins to germinate into virtue, 
are virtue. Are they feelings of faith ? No doubt they are ; 
for they have an unseen scope, they deal with things hoped 
for as substantial, 3 and things not seen as evident. But they 
are also feelings of love and gratitude, of modesty or courage, 
or whatever other be the specific name belonging to them 
according to their kind. Are they feelings of love and grati- 
tude, or of the other virtues ? No doubt they are ; but they 
are also feelings of faith ; for they spring from belief, and their 
province and objects are the things of the invisible world. 

In this sense of the word faith it comprehends and includes 
the former and narrower sense. The intellectual and moral 
parts, distinguishable as we regard them, are practically one; 
Each is, in some degree, cause and consequence of the other ; 
and though we may rightly speak of belief as being, in the 
natural order of things, the basis and ground of virtue, yet 
does virtue in many ways strengthen, confirm, introduce, and 
prepare belief; just as in many plants the living shoots or 
leaves, when divided from the parent stock, will of themselves 
put forth roots, and reverse the natural process of growth ; 
and many a beautiful race of exotic flowers blooms, without 
root or soil, wreathing itself lightly from bough to bough of 
South American forests. 

It is in this second sense of the word, as was before ob- 
served, that our blessed Lord speaks more commonly of faith 
as a thing of the heart, a virtue, or as comprising virtues. 
Thus, when of the ten lepers, the Samaritan alone returned 
to give glory to God, 4 our Lord calls his gratitude (for grati- 
tude alone the narrative exhibits) by the name of faith. In 
the case of the poor woman who was a sinner, the many tears, 
showing " much love/' 5 are by the Lord called faith. In the 

8 Heb, xi. 1. 4 St. Luke xvii. 19. 

5 Ibid, vii. 50. 



V.] PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. 181 

case of the father of the demoniac boy, tears, and the prayer 
to " help his unbelief/' 6 receive the blessing expressly said to 
belong to Faith. In the case of the poor superstitious 
woman/ who hoped to steal, as it were, a cure by touching 
the hem of His garment in the press of people that followed 
to the house of Jairus, her anxious search of bodily restora- 
tion from Christ is by Himself called faith. In the poor 
Syrophoenician woman, 8 whose daughter was grievously vexed 
with a devil, her obstinate undiscouraged prayers are called 
great faith. 

Nor is the way in which St. Paul enumerates the great 
instances of faith 9 in the worthies of the Old Testament at all 
different from that in which our Lord speaks in these pas- 
sages. All of them believed that Grod is, and that He is a 
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. All of them 
regarded these rewards which they did not see, but hoped for, 
as evident and substantial. All of them died thus in faith, 
not having received the promises, but having seen them afar 
off, and having been persuaded of them, and having embraced 
them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on 
the earth ; and so faithful Abel offered his more excellent 
sacrifice, faithful Enoch was translated, faithful Noah prepared 
his ark, faithful Abraham obeyed the command of Grod to 
leave his country, sojourned in the land of promise as in a 
strange country, and when he was tried, offered up Isaac; 
faithful Isaac blessed Jacob, faithful Jacob when he was 
dying blessed both the sons of J oseph, faithful Joseph when 
he died made mention of the departing of the children of 
Israel, faithful Moses when he was born was hidden of his 
parents, when he came to years refused to be called the son 
of Pharaoh's daughter, forsook Egypt, kept the Passover; for 
all of them alike, in all these faithful acts, had respect unto 
the recompense of the reward. Thus speaks St. Paul of the 

6 St. Mark ix. 22. 7 St. Mark v. 4. 

8 St. Matt. xv. 28. 9 Heb. xi. 1-28. 

16 



182 PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. [DISC. 

faithful obedience of the patriarchs; nor are his expressions 
in any way to be understood differently from those of Matta- 
thias to his sons as recorded in the first book of the Macca- 
bees : " Call to remembrance what acts our fathers did in 
their time; so shall ye receive great honour and an ever- 
lasting name. Was not Abraham found faithful in temptation, 
and it was imputed unto him for righteousness ? Joseph in 
the time of his distress kept the commandment, and was made 
lord of Egypt. Phinees, our father, in being zealous and 
fervent, obtained the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. 
Jesus, for fulfilling the word, was made a judge in Israel. 
Caleb, for bearing witness before the congregation, received 
the heritage of the land. David, for being merciful, possessed 
the throne of an everlasting kingdom. Elias, for being zealous 
and fervent for the law, was taken up into heaven. Ananias, 
Azarias, and Misael, by believing, were saved out of the 
flame. Daniel, for his innocency, was delivered from the 
mouth of lions. And thus consider ye throughout all ages, 
that none that put their trust in him shall be overcome." 1 

Thus, in all these cases, to believe G-od and his promises, 
and act as believing, are together spoken of as faith. Faith, 
which, strictly used, means belief only, is used more largely 
to cover all that mixed mental state and complex virtue which 
is built by the operation of G-od's grace in our hearts upon 
belief, and addresses itself to the invisible G-od, and his in- 
visible rewards. And such faith — such as the Lord Himself, 
in the instances adduced, acknowledged and blessed ; faith, 
the virtue of the heart, grounded upon belief in the under- 
standing; faith, the virtue of the heart, looking through belief 
as through a telescope, and thence gaining the view, and by 
the view, the love and obedience of G-od the Father, Son, and 
Holy G-host; faith, the complex goodness of the Christian 
mind, the joint work of every faculty of intelligence and capa- 
city of feeling in man, is, according to the commission given 
i 1 Mace. ii. 51-61. 



V.] PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. 183 

to the Apostles in the great forty days, to be the fit estate 
for holy baptism ; and with baptism the title of every other 
blessing. 

" He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." Shall 
be saved ! He shall be saved forthwith, saved from death, 
put into the ark out of the raging waters of the flood ; he 
shall become one of those that are saved, be put into the state 
of salvation. He shall be made God's own child, being a 
member of Christ. He shall be at once, in title, privilege, 
and condition, elect, a saint of God, enrolled among the citi- 
zens of heaven, rescued from the thraldom and dead estate of 
the subjects of Satan. Shall be saved ! Living on in the 
world, wandering awhile up and down in time, — that duration 
created by the most high God to give scope for choice, free- 
will, voluntary action, growth, gradual perfecting of the saints, 
— he shall, if he hold fast his belief, and mature his virtue, if 
he persist in prayer, and by the grace of God grow to the full 
stature of a perfect man in Christ, he shall be saved ; saved 
in the awful day ; saved from the wreck of the world ; saved 
from weakness, temptations, and sins; saved from dangers 
and drawbacks ; saved out of the state of trial into the state 
of joy ; saved from the glory of the Church militant, into the 
greater and eternal weight of glory of the Church triumphant. 

He that believeth and is baptized : yea, and he that is bap- 
tized and believeth. Such belief or faith, as it is the fitness 
for holy baptism, so is the business of life after baptism. As 
its first and weak beginnings introduce to the fountain of life, 
so its daily increasing strength, and continual accessions of 
habitual firmness, lead the baptized on to glory. " Teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you j" the whole moral law of Christianity is comprised within 
its high functions. The love of God, 3 and the love of man, 
the almsgivings, the prayers, the fastings, the forgivenesses, 
the humilities, all the details of that high Christian righteous- 
2 St. Matt. xxii. 37-40; vi. 1-18 ; xviii. 4, 21-35 ; xi. 29 ; v. 20. 



184 PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. [DISC. 

ness which must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and 
Pharisees, come within and are part of this fulness of Christian 
faith. Christian faith requires all. Every thought and feel- 
ing ; every word and action ; body and soul with all their 
powers ; the understanding and the will ; the imagination, 
the hopes, and the desires ; all consecrated to God the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, are faith ; and all work onward and 
onward, fearful indeed, and trembling for themselves, but 
hopeful and trusting in God, who is their source and strength, 
from the salvation of baptism to the salvation of glory. 

" And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my 
name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new 
tongues ; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any 
deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on 
the sick, and they shall recover." 3 

Such shall be the further powers and triumphs of faith. In 
the name of Christ nothing shall be impossible to it. The 
ordinary limits which bound the agencies of man shall be re- 
moved for those who, planted into the body or name of 
Christ, and growing daily stronger in faith, work miracles in 
prayer, yet not they but the grace of Christ which is in them. 
To the universal Church, His indwelling Presence is grace 
and strength and Divine power. And individual members 
of the body win the separate blessings by separate faith. As 
they grow in faith, as they realize more and more the great- 
ness of their station and privilege, and live more nearly up to 
it ; as Christ dwelleth more and more in their hearts by faith ; 
so they obtain more and more enjoyment of the great and 
supernatural blessings which belong to the body. Their 
prayers are more heard, their graces are greater, their know- 
ledge and power of sight and judgment in divine things are 
enlarged, they have more and more constant sense of the 
nearness and holiness of God, they see differences in things 



3 St. Mark xvi. 17, 18. 



v] 



PRIVILEGES OF THE BAPTIZED. 



185 



apparently indifferent, they gain greater powers, 4 powers over 
themselves, their friends, their enemies, the visible and in- 
visible world. According to the often repeated promise of the 
Lord, they may work miracles. "Verily I say unto you, If 
ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this 
mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove ; 
and nothing shall be impossible unto you." 5 

And where shall a word be found in the Holy Scriptures of 
the cessation of these powers of faith ? or what ground of 
reason can be given which should make us think that, if the 
blessed presence of Christ amid His Church is assured even 
unto the end of the world, faith hath ceased to have the pri- 
vilege so often promised in the Gospels, and so solemnly con- 
ferred in the Forty Days ? It is plain that there is none such. 
The promise is nowhere spoken of as though it was a tempo- 
rary one, nor has the gift been ever expressly withdrawn. The 
Church is still the Body of Christ, and where He is, there is 
still the power which exhibited itself in all the mighty works 
of the Apostolic days. We may not doubt it. We must not 
doubt these holy solemn sayings of our departing Lord. We 
must not apply the miserable standard of our own deficiencies 
to measure the height and breadth of our gracious Master's 
word of promise, and thus make it speak only our own lan- 
guage, echo our own thoughts, and represent only our actual 
condition. No ; amid the sacred sayings of these forty days, 
there is yet one which seems to meet this very doubt, and bid 
us not fear for the blessedness of faith, in whatever distant 
ages or lands it may be cherished in the hearts of Christian 
men. " Thomas, because thou hast seen, thou hast believed ; 
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." 6 

4 xoi T?d%a uitirtsg iril tZiv cscdfidtoiv £67fu tictiv rtpog Tfova fyvGcxr} o^xr}, 
w$ -ty fxayvrjaia %C9q> "tgps ci'S^poy, xoi tcp xa"kov(A£v£> Ndq>9a rtgoj 7tt>£, 
ovTf w$ tocqBs Tilo-iti rtpoj dstav 8vva/j.tv — Origen. in Evang. Matt. x. 

5 St. Matt. xvii. 20 ; xx"i. 21. St. Mark xi. 23. St. Luke xvii. 6. 

6 St. John xx. 29. cf. 1 St. Pet. i. 8. 

16* 



186 



PRIVILEGES OE THE BAPTIZED. 



[DISC. 



Yes, whenever or wherever they may be born, or live, of what- 
ever hue, of whatever speech, of whatever rank or station 
among men, — " blessed are they that have not seen, and yet 
have believed blessed, even as St. Thomas ! blessed even 
above St. Thomas ! blessed with every blessing that is, by 
God's mercy in Christ, the inheritance of faith. The in- 
dwelling Presence decays not, nor grows old. The promise 
is everlasting, and shall never fail. God still looketh on his 
Church in love, as on the Body of His Son, and shall do so 
to the end. 

Alas ; it is not from the failure of these causes that men 
grow cold, and doubt whether powers and privileges like these 
were ever given in perpetuity to the Church, or to her faith- 
ful children, or whether they were not the mere credentials 
of the first Apostolic preachers, of no further use or benefit to 
the Church than to be historical evidences of Christianity to 
later days. Is it not, rather, that the abundance of iniquity 7 
hath chilled love ? Is it not, rather, that according to our 
Lord's own mournful forecasting, the Son of Man, when He 
cometh, is little likely to find such faith upon the earth ? 8 
The faith that prayed without ceasing ; the faith that loved 
God above all things; the faith that devoted time, talent, 
labour, soul and body, to God's service; the faith which 
caused a man to realize his membership of Christ as his first 
and greatest, and, so to speak, his only (because his most in- 
clusive) relation upon earth ; the faith which was as eyes to the 
soul, and made it see God in His Church, and in every ordi- 
nance of His in her ; which showed to it the dishonour and 
irreverence that is done to God in thousands of actions which 
the world calls innocent and indifferent; such faith is surely 
rare and discouraged among us. Credit, character, ease, power, 
money, — these things and such as these fill the hearts who 
claim to be of the Body of Christ, and profess to be making 



7 St. Matt. xxiv. 12. 



St. Luke xviii. 8. 



v.] 



THE PROMISE OP THE FATHER. 



187 



their glorious calling and election sure. These things and 
such as these have supplanted faith in the chilling and chilled 
hearts of too many of those who are in estate and privilege 
heirs of God, and joint heirs of Christ. Truly we need, one 
and all, never to weary of the apostolic prayer, 9 u Increase 
our faith." It is of Thee, Lord, alone that we can believe. 
It is not of ourselves, it is thy gift. Do Thou, of thy great 
goodness, stir our hearts ! Quicken us to a stronger, a holier, 
and livelier faith. Make us to yield ourselves up to Thee 
with fuller and truer devotion, that in the last day, at thy 
coming, we may be found among the number of thy faithful 
and blessed children ! 

There remains but one more saying of the great Forty 
Days to be briefly noticed, but it is the greatest of all. It is 
the one upon which all the others depend for their full and 
divine accomplishment. (l And behold, I send the promise 
of my Father upon you. Tarry ye here in the city of Jeru- 
salem, until ye be endued with power from on high i" 1 the 
gift of the Holy Ghost, the descent of the Blessed and Eternal 
Comforter, to dwell in the Church. 

Till the Holy Ghost was given, these other great sayings 
were, so to speak, dark and ineffective. The very receivers 3 
of them knew not half their sacred meaning, nor the wonder- 
ful exaltation of privilege and blessing to which they them- 
selves were raised by them. With the day of Pentecost, and 
the full effusion of the fiery Spirit, light flashed through all 
these sacred words, and they were seen to be full of mighty 
and unexpected significancy, the very outlines of the kingdom 
of Heaven. All that their Lord had said to them was brought 
vividly before their minds. The wondrous vision of "all 

9 St. Luke xvii. 5. . 1 St. Luke xxiv. 49. 

2 Witness their inquiry of the Lord, even after all these great Sayings 
had been solemnly declared to them : " Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore 
again the kingdom to Israel ?" Our Lord in his answer points to the day 
of Pentecost: " But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you." Acts i. 6, 8. 



188 THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. [DISC. 

truth" was opened before them. They were taught of God, 
and became at once the teachers of the world. 

The delegation of the Church to occupy the place of her 
Lord upon the earth, and the perpetual Presence of the Lord 
with her as the secret of that delegation, which verities are at 
the very foundation of the being of the Church, and all its 
powers and privileges among men, do both altogether depend 
for their completion upon the Divine gift of the Holy Ghost. 

In the predictions uttered by our Lord to give comfort to 
His disciples before His departure from them, the coming of 
the Comforter, and His own return to dwell among them are 
spoken of, as has been shown above, as if they were either 
one and the same event, or at least took place the one by the 
means of the other. " He would not leave them orphans ; he 
would come to them." 3 u Yet a little while and they should 
see him." u He would see them again, and their heart should 
rejoice, and their joy no man should take from them;" and 
yet u it was expedient for them that he should go away, for 
if he went not away, the Comforter would not come unto 
them ; but if he departed he would send him unto them." 

When, again, the Church is spoken of as the temple of 
Christ, we are taught that it is by the Presence and indwell- 
ing grace of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of separate Chris- 
tians that it becomes so. " All the building fitly framed 
together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord : in whom 
ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through 
the Spirit." 4 " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, 
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ?" 5 " Ye also as 
lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, 
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus 
Christ." 6 

If the Church is called by the name of the Body of Christ, 
it is in like manner owing to the Presence and indwelling 



3 St. John xiv. 18 ; xvi. 22, 16, 7. 
5 1 Cor. iii, 16. 



4 Eph. ii. 21. 22. 
6 1 Pet. ii. 5. 



V.] THE PROMISE OP THE FATHER. 189 

strength of the Holy Ghost in the members that they are thus 
mysteriously united to Him. " For by one Spirit are we all 
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, 
whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink 
into one Spirit/' 7 It is by the Holy Ghost that we may 
« grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even 
Christ : from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and 
compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to 
the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh 
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love :" 8 and 
" hereby we know that God abideth in us, by the Spirit which 
he hath given us." 9 As we become spiritual men by the 
Spirit which is in us, as that union with the Body and unto 
the Head is a spiritual conjunction, so it proceedeth from the 
Spirit; and "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." 1 
In the same manner we are taught that if we have not the 
Spirit of Christ, 2 we are none of His ; but that when being 
born of God by the Spirit 3 we have love of Christ, then the 
Father and the Son love us, and will come unto us, and make 
their abode in us. 

Again, what were the sacred tradition of Holy Baptism 
without the Holy Ghost, who is not only one of the sacred 
Three-in-One in whose Holy Name it is given, but who is, 
more^ particularly still, Himself the very gift and grace of 
Baptism ? The very point in which the divine sacrament of 
the Lord's institution differs from the washing of the Baptism 
of John is this, that it imparts the sacred and most holy gift 
of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. We sacredly believe, 
that with the due use of the holy water of Baptism comes the 
birth of the Holy Ghost mentioned in our Lord's discourse 4 

7 1 Cor. xii. 12. 8 Eph. iv. 16. Col. ii. 19. 

9 1 St. John iii. 24. 

1 1 Cor. vi. 17. Cf. Bp. Pearson on the Creed, art. viii. 

2 Rom. viii. 9. 3 Cf. 1 St. John iv. 7 ; xiv. 23. 
4 St. John iii. 3, 5. 



190 THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. [DISC. 

with Nicodemus, and that thereby the laver of Holy Baptism 
becomes, as St. Paul 5 calls it, the laver of Regeneration. We 
believe that like as the body was anciently dipped in the 
water in the external act of Baptism, and thence raised up 
again, so the souls of the baptized have been made in a myste- 
rious and Divine way, by the means of that action, to partake 
of the death 6 and burial, and of the Resurrection of Christ. 
" strange and inconceivable thing ! we did not really die, 
we were not really buried, we were not really crucified, and 
raised again. Our imitation was but in a figure, whilst our 
salvation was in reality. Christ was actually crucified, and 
actually buried, and truly rose again ; and all these things 
have been vouchsafed to us, that we, by imitation, communi- 
cating in His sufferings, might gain salvation in reality." 7 
Thus St. Cyril of Jerusalem shows eloquently and clearly 
how the holy Sacrament, which is in itself a figure or imitation 
of that which was done for us by Christ, conveys to us the 
reality of the blessing. We wash in the sacred water, and 
our soul is spiritually re-born ; we descend into the figurative 
sepulchre, and we rise to real life by an eternal Resurrection. 

What new birth may be, what the precise change worked 
upon our souls and bodies by this Divine operation may be, 
we cannot say. As " the wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
we hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh 
or whither it goeth," so viewless, deep, and mysterious are 
the inward workings of the Holy Ghost, whereby our souls 
are re-born to immortality, re-born to holiness, re-born to the 
likeness and love of God our Saviour. But then first begins 
in us that which God looketh on in love. We begin to be in 
Christ, and Christ begins to be formed in us. 

But, again, as the beginnings of natural life are small and 
feeble, nor comparable in point of vigour and efficacy with the 
maturity of life full grown, so are the beginnings of spiritual 

6 Tit. Hi. 5. 6 Rom. vi. 3—5. Col. ii. 12 ; iii. 4. 

7 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Myst. Cat. ii. 



THE PROMISE OE THE FATHER. 



191 



life weak and feeble too. The mysterious gift is indeed pre- 
sent, and the soul is changed in itself and in its aspect to 
God, but hitherto it has made no spiritual attainments, nor 
risen beyond the first and, as it were, germinal condition of 
spiritual being. But with every act of faith, with every volun- 
tary activity of the mind in obedience to the inward working 
of the Holy Ghost, and in the direction of the invisible 
rewards of God, the Spirit grows in us, and we grow in the 
Spirit. As the Spirit grows in us, so are we more sanctified, 
so are we more holy, so have we more faith, so do we realize 
the unseen things better, so are we more citizens of heaven, 
so do we draw nearer to the likeness of Christ, so do we more 
make our calling and election sure. In prayer the Holy 
Spirit 8 cries within us ; by prayer we receive fresh grace of 
the Holy Spirit. 9 In Confirmation 1 we receive the outpouring 
of the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of wisdom 
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, 
the spirit of knowledge and true godliness, and the spirit of 
holy fear. In every Communion of the Lord's Body and 
Blood we strengthen the union (that sacred union of the Holy 
Ghost !) which is betwixt the members of the Body and their 
Divine Head. Thus in all our Christian life, from the font 
to the grave, the Holy Ghost is the very principle and source 
of vitality in us. "Without Him we cannot think a thought, 
or speak a word, or do a deed which is not evil. Faith or 
works, things inward or things outward, all alike without Him 
are vile, with Him are precious. Cherishing His Presence, 
growing in His grace, not quenching His movements of fire, 
we shall pass unhurt from earth to heaven, from the state in 
which He is " the earnest" 2 of our bliss, to the state in which, 
by His perfect sanctification, we shall at least be fitted and 
made capable of our bliss. 



8 Eom. viii. 26. 9 St. Matt. v. 11. St. Luke xi. 13. 

'"Prayer in the Order of Confirmation. Cf. Isa. xi. 2. 
2 2 Cor. i. 22 ; v. 5. Eph. i. 13, 14. 



192 THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. [DISC. 

In like manner to the Holy Ghost, the ordainer, we trace 
every authoritative commission to rule, to teach, to feed, to 
bind and loose, which Apostles held, or successors of Apostles 
hold, in the Church of Christ ; and because of that Divine 
authority inhering in them, we believe that they justly claim a 
Christian 3 submission to the acts of their separate functions, 
to the end of the world. It is the Holy Ghost who maketh 
men to be overseers over the flock of God. 4 It is the Holy 
Ghost by whom they are empowered to forgive and retain 
sins. 5 It is the Holy Ghost, by whom is given to one the 
word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another 
the working of miracles, to another prophecy ; all these mani- 
fold gifts which He worketh, dividing to every man severally 
as He will." 6 

To the Holy Ghost therefore we attribute, in all lowliness 
and thankfulness of mind, all holiness, all power, all accepta- 
bleness in the Church. From Him is the authority of 
governors; from Him the obedience of the governed. A 
mighty work of God is doing on the earth ; on men, and in 
men ; a work which each may resist, if in the wilfulness of a 
rebellious spirit he resolves to reject the counsel 7 of God 
against him; but which, too, each may further by yielding 
himself up in all devotion of body and soul to perform, with 
the help of God, the work which God hath given him to do. 
But though man may further, as man may reject, though man 
by using the means of grace with all diligence may work out, 
as he may also lose and ruin, his own salvation, yet of the 
work and gift of God the Holy Ghost is all that is good or 
faithful or well-pleasing in him. He keeps our souls as their 
sole indwelling principle of truth, purity, and firmness. He 
is our Lord and Giver of life, our growth, our grace, our joy, 
our hope. " Through Him is the lifting up of hearts, the 
leading of the weak by the hand, the perfecting of those who 



3 Bp. Pearson on the Creed, art. viii. 

6 St. John xx. 22. 6 1 Cor. xii. 8. 10. 



4 Acts xx. 28. 

7 St. Luke vii. 30. 



THE PROMISE OP THE PATHER. 



193 



make progress. He, shining upon those who have been 
purified from every stain, maketh them spiritual by union with 
Himself. And as clear and transparent bodies, when a ray 
of light falls upon them, become shining themselves, and 
reflect another ray from themselves, so spirit-bearing souls, 
shone upon by the Spirit, are themselves made spiritual, and 
send forth grace to others also. Thence comes the foreknow- 
ledge of things to come, the understanding of mysteries, the 
comprehension of things concealed, the distributions of gifts, 
citizenship of heaven, union with the choir of angels, endless 
joy, perseverance with God, likeness to God, and what is 
the chief of all things desirable, the becoming divine/' 8 

Thus to the Holy Ghost, the Divine Paraclete, the Church 
owes her life, her light, and spiritual being. Without Him, 
even the sacred words of Christ, the charter of her marvellous 
powers and graces, had been words without deeds, a body with- 
out a soul, a shadow without a substance. With his Divine 
Presence, and unfailing help, all these sacred words are full 
of energetic, life-imparting force. The words were spoken in 
the Forty Days ; the Spirit and the power descended on the 
fiftieth. Prom that day forth the Church began to bear her 
sacred witness to the world. From that day forth she began 
in the life and strength of the Holy Spirit of God to strike her 
roots deeply, and to spread her branches. Prom that day 
forth she began to cover the hills with her shadow, and to 
fill the land ; to send out her boughs unto the sea, and her 
branches unto the river. From that day forth she began, 
through a long and various, a mournful and wonderful history, 
to prepare the world for the terrible advent of her Lord in 
Judgment. 



8 St. Basil, de Spiritu Sancto, c. 9. 
17 



THE DOCTRINE OF DEVELOPMENT. 



I AM not willing to write or print any thing which might, 
even mistakenly, lead to the impression of my wishing to 
support that doctrine which I cannot but regard as the source 
of corruption in the Church, the true cause and provocative of 
all the manifold schisms of later years, the nputov tyvBos of 
■ debased Christianity, the doctrine of the supremacy of the 
Pope, or the absolute need of submission to him in order to 
membership of the Church of Christ, and his consequent 
infallibility in matters of doctrine. 

And I therefore trust that I may not be doing what is 
faulty, in point either of taste or duty, in expressing my deep 
conviction of the soundness of the ground taken by the Church 
in England as against the See of Rome. The equality of the 
Apostles, which is capable of the most abundant proof, seems 
to lead directly to the equality of Bishops, and of Churches. 
Nor is it easy to conceive that what was a real and acknow- 
ledged equality in the primitive ages, can have become a 
legitimate and due dominion in later ones. When this claim 
of dominion is found to involve an actual denial of the full 
Episcopal power to all Bishops throughout Christendom, ex- 
cept the single holder of the See of St. Peter, from whom all 
other Bishops are thought to hold only a delegated and vica- 
rious authority ; when this claim of dominion is used to sub- 
stantiate and accredit a body of doctrine widely dissimilar 
from what the Holy Scriptures teach, and the writings of the 



196 



Newman's doctrine 



primitive Fathers exhibit as believed in their times, it becomes 
a matter of the very first and most momentous consequence 
to ascertain whether that claim itself is well-founded, or 
whether, in fact, it be an usurpation, and therefore to be 
resisted by those who tender the true constitution of the 
Church of Christ, and the integrity of the Faith once delivered 
to the Saints. It is no longer then a question of peace, or of 
a meek spirit which can yield itself even to illegitimate claims 
of superiority; but it is a real, vital question. The Pope is 
not an individual whom for honour's sake, or for the sake of 
the antiquity or apostolicity of his See, we may inoffensively, 
and without evil consequence, regard with even more respect 
and submission than is his due ; but he is the claimant of an 
universal monarchy, the very symbol of a theory of Church 
government unheard of for many centuries of the Church's 
existence ; the representative and enforcer of a system of doc- 
trine, uniform in spirit, but very various in details, which, be 
it true or be it false, is very far from being identical with the 
system of doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, or the Creeds, or 
the primitive Church. 

To a person bred within the bosom of the Church of Koine 
it is probably extremely difficult to gain the point of view 
from which the question of the validity of this wonderful 
claim can be rightly regarded, and adequately judged. His 
entire Christian knowledge and training have been so mixed 
up with the acknowledgment of the monarchical constitution 
of the visible Church, it so occupies the foreground of his 
view, that he can hardly, by any exercise of mind and judg- 
ment, disembarrass himself of it sufficiently to test the real, 
historical grounds on which that monarchical constitution 
claims to rest; and the comparative withdrawal of the Holv 
Scripture from popular use, and other like measures of keep- 
ing Christian doctrine at a distance from popular examination 
and study, greatly increase the difficulty. 

But every legitimate claim must have assignable grounds. 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



197 



Even though some persons may not be in a condition to see 
them, and though it may not be desirable for them to be often 
brought forward, or much talked of (as in the case of the 
regal authority and others such), yet grounds it must have, or 
else it is groundless. And these grounds must be such as can 
be produced, and being produced, such as can be judged of. 

Whatever these grounds be, a candid member of the Church 
of England, living in this age, and desirous above all things 
to assure himself that he is a " very member incorporate in 
the mystical Body of Christ, which is the blessed Company of 
all faithful people," would seem to be not unfavourably 
situated to judge of it. The heats of the Reformation are to 
him long since passed away. He neither participates in the 
sins of many of the individuals who contributed to place the 
Church of England in her independent position, nor in the 
angry feelings with which his fathers regarded their long since 
dead antagonists as merciless tyrants and persecutors, who 
only lacked the power, not the will, to force them either to 
recantation or the flames. If the Pope be indeed the Yicar 
of Christ, so that his decisions are indeed the present form of 
the Divine scheme of mercy for the restoration of the world, 
then, in the name of Him whom we desire to serve, let the 
point be proved, and we are ready to yield. If Christ be per- 
sonally represented on earth by one man, so that to be, even 
reluctantly, painfully, and by compulsion out of communion 
with that one man, is equivalent to not having the Spirit of 
Christ, and so being none of His, then let the case be cleared, 
the argument made good, and we will submit ; yes, and if his 
priests declare it necessary, undo our very baptisms, acknow- 
ledge ourselves to have been no members of Christ, nor chil- 
dren of G-od, nor inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, by 
receiving re-baptism at the hand of his delegates. 

But, alas ! this very acknowledgment has been made, this 
very re-baptism received, the point of argument yielded, the 
Bishop of Rome's power submitted to as the true and legiti- 



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mate ordinance of Glod, by many, and those not of small name, 
nor light esteem in the English Church, within these few 
weeks. We lament their loss , we lament it sore for our- 
selves, for we have lost. their zeal, their learning, their piety, 
their fraternal love ; still more do we lament it sore for them, 
for we believe them to have incurred the gilt of schism, to 
have contributed to strengthen a grievous usurpation and 
tyranny in God's Church, and therewith to have given their 
support to a mass of unauthorized and unfounded " traditions 
of men/' to the corruption of the true primitive Faith of 
Christ. 

But why have they done this ? what grounds do they state ? 
what argument has told upon them with weight unfelt before ? 
what have they seen, or read, or thought, which has caused 
them to desert the place in which they found themselves, and 
yielding to the Roman submission, to confess that every Church 
is essentially in schism which does not maintain, by acknow- 
ledgment of the claim of dominion and infallibility, the supre- 
macy in all the Church of the Bishop of the See of Borne ? 

For, if they have done it, why do we not do it ? A few 
weeks, or months ago, they were at our side ; acting together 
with us, feeling together, wishing together. They have 
changed, not we. Why do we not follow them ? If they are 
right, we are wrong ; if we are right, they are wrong. We 
are in schism, or they are. Unity has received a further rent, 
and which of us is guilty of the sin ? 

I know not whether we are to take the recently published 
volume of Mr. Newman as containing the answer to these 
questions. 1 Certainly the publications of Mr. Ward and Mr. 
Oakeley were so far from offering an adequate answer to 
them, that it was nearly equally difficult to conclude from 
them, why they stayed so long with us, or why they went at 
last ; what they thought upon the questions which divide the 
Churches, or whether they thought upon them at all. They 
"held all Roman doctrine/' not submitting to the Pope, 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



199 



•which is the heart of Koman doctrine : they submitted to the 
Pope, and one at least of them acknowledged that when he 
did so, he had not examined the argument of the Supremacy. 

It may well be believed that I should not venture to take 
notice of Mr. Newman's volume, if I did not feel myself im- 
peratively called upon to do so. It is too obviously impossible 
to need a disclaimer, that I should willingly put myself in any 
position where I should provoke comparison with the im- 
mense learning and extraordinary ability of Mr. Newman. 

But as his book has appeared while these sheets are passing- 
through the press, and as it happens that the course of my 
argument in the Fourth Discourse has actually carried me in 
some degree over part of the subject of Development in Chris- 
tian Doctrine, which is the subject of his Essay, I do not feel 
at liberty to shrink from considering and stating how far his 
argument has appeared to me to overthrow or confirm the 
views stated by myself. 

Mr. Newman then having before held, " what there is not 
the shadow of a reason for saying that the Fathers held, what 
has not the faintest pretension of being a Catholic truth, is 
this, that St. Peter or his successors were and are universal 
Bishops, that they have the whole of Christendom for their 
one Diocese in a way in which other Apostles and Bishops 
had and have not;" has now submitted himself to this very 
claim, and holds that Popes, with all their alleged powers, are 
as fully implied in the Apostles, " as creation argues con- 
tinual governance." And why so ? 

For these reasons. 

" Christianity {after M. Guizot's suggestion) came into the 
world as an idea, rather than an institution." 

Every idea must of necessity admit of development. 

"Unless then some special ground of exception can be 
assigned, it is as evident that Christianity, as a doctrine and 
worship, will develop in the minds of recipients, as that it 
conforms, in other respects, to the general methods by which 



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newman's doctrine 



the course of things is carried forward." " The idea of Chris- 
tianity, as originally revealed, cannot but develop." 

Christianity thus necessarily requiring development, requires 
equally necessarily an infallible present guide. 

" The common sense of mankind feels that the very idea of 
revelation implies a present informant and guide, and that an 
infallible one." " If Christianity is both social and dogmatic, 
.and intended for all ages, it must, humanly speaking, have 
an infallible expounder." 

Thus there is a strong antecedent probability in favour of 
developments; and "if this probability is great it almost 
supersedes evidence altogether." 

The history of the first three centuries presents only " dim 
notices" of these developments; of some of them "we are 
able to assign the date of their formal establishment to the 
fourth or fifth, or eighth or thirteenth century, as it may 
happen, yet their substance may, for what appears, be coeval 
with the Apostles, and be expressed or implied in texts of 
Scripture." 

The Roman Creed " comes recommended to us on strong 
antecedent grounds, and presents no striking opposition to the 
sacred text." 

" There is nothing in the early history of the Church to 
contradict the Papal supremacy." 

In the fourth and fifth centuries there is "clear light" 
upon these developments. 

The particular development of the Papal supremacy is one 
of which there was "absolute need;" "no Church can do 
without its Pope." 

" The absolute need of a spiritual supremacy is at present 
the strongest of arguments in favour of its supply." 

" As creation argues continual governance, so are Apostles 
harbingers of Popes." 

The developments of Rome form a single and uniform 
body ; of which " it is a solemn thing to receive any part ; 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



201 



for before you know where you are, you may be carried on 
by a stern logical necessity to accept the whole." 

" No one has power over the issues of his principles : we 
cannot manage an argument, and have as much as we please 
of it and no more." 

" Nor is it more reasonable to express surprise that at this 
time of day a theory is necessary, granting for argument's 
sake that the theory is novel, than to have directed a similar 
wonder in disparagement of the theory of gravitation, or the 
Plutonian theory in geology." 

" I have called the doctrine of Infallibility an hypothesis ; 
let it be so considered for the sake of argument." 

" The view on which it, ' the Essay/ is written, has at all 
times perhaps been implicitly adopted by theologians." 

"Already infidelity has its views and ideas on which it 
arranges the facts of ecclesiastical history ; and it is sure to 
consider the absence of any antagonist theory as an evidence 
of the reality of its own." " An argument is needed, unless 
Christianity is to abandon the province of argument; and 
those who find fault with the explanation here offered of its 
historical phenomena, will find it their duty to provide one of 
their own." 

" The same philosophical elements, received into a certain 
sensibility or insensibility to sin and its consequences, leads 
one mind to the Church of Rome ; another to what, for want 
of a better word, may be called Germanism." 

" Hence, too, men may pass from infidelity to Rome, and 
from Rome to infidelity, from a conviction that there is no 
tangible intellectual position between the two." 

" And if the very claim to infallible arbitration in religious 
disputes is of so weighty importance and interest in all ages 
of the world, much more is it welcome at a time like the pre- 
sent, when the human intellect is so busy, and thought so 
fertile, and opinion so indefinitely divided. The absolute 



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need of a spiritual supremacy is at present the strongest of 
arguments in favour of its supply." 

It appears from these passages, and many others like them, 
that the writer has, to say the least, yielded to the Roman 
dominion on very different grounds to those of Mr. Ward and 
Mr. Oakeley. It is not because he has held all Roman doc- 
trine. If he now holds all Roman doctrine, it is because he 
has submitted to the Roman dominion. But again, why has 
he submitted to the Roman dominion ? 

He used to hold, and no man has urged it with stronger 
force than he, that the Roman supremacy was utterly devoid 
of all claim of being a Catholic truth, that it had no shadow 
of adequate support in early ecclesiastical history, that it was 
quite without scriptural basis or foundation. 

Why has he changed his mind ? Has he found new evi- 
dence of consent in the early Church ? Has he found new 
facts in the early history of the Church ? Has he lighted 
upon new Scripture, or new principles of interpreting Scrip- 
ture ? 

None of these things. Those who go to Holy Scripture, or 
to early Church History, or to consent of primitive Doctors, 
cannot but come to the same conclusion which he came to when 
he wrote his book on the Prophetical Office of the Church ; 
and which he has in that book maintained with a clearness of 
argument, and a force of truth, which will be his own princi- 
pal obstacle in recommending his new views. 

If then he has found nothing new in these points, what has 
he found ? 

A theory ; an a 'priori philosophical theory ; a theory of 
which it is obvious to remark, that it is so far from being 
certain and self-evident, that Mr. Newman himself, after many 
years of deep theological reading, has only recently adopted 
it, and that it is, as far as can be known, absolutely new in 
the present generation. 



OP DEVELOPMENT. 



203 



Mr. Newman ; indeed, says, that " it has, perhaps, been im- 
plicitly adopted by theologians of all ages." But are the 
theologians of the primitive and medieval times, the very 
theologians of the times of Luther and the Council of Trent, 
themselves to be understood to have held implicit theories to 
defend implicit doctrines ? Are they to be thought to have 
believed what they did not state, on grounds which they did 
not urge ? Are we to think that though they stated a belief, 
and urged the grounds of it ; and though both belief and its 
grounds appear inconsistent, and even contradictory to those 
which are now attributed to them, yet it matters not ; that 
the new development conserves, interprets, illustrates the old ; 
that they neither believed what they said they believed, nor 
believed it on the grounds on which they said that they be- 
lieved it ? 

And what has set Mr. Newman upon finding this " theory," 
or " novel hypothesis," as " for argument's sake" he will 
allow it to be called ? I do not think it is possible to read 
through his book without perceiving in every few pages, what 
is the pressure under which he has acted. It is the pressure 
of philosophy ; the pressure of infidelity ; the pressure of the 
fertile thought, the many theories of the present age. 

He seems to fear that there is no tangible intellectual posi- 
tion between Home and infidelity. The same philosophical 
elements would lead in either direction, and it is according to 
a man's sensibility or insensibility to sin that he adopts this 
or that conclusion from them. 

A theory is become absolutely necessary and those who 
decline to receive the one which he has adopted, will be bound 
to find a better. 

Does he appear satisfied with his theory ? Alas ! not much. 
His opinion of the barrenness of Ante-Nicene facts in support 
of it is not materially changed. He seems to feel the " stern 
logical necessity" of going all lengths. He thinks, that 
1 perhaps] his argument has been held ' implicitly' by theo- 



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logians of all ages, but for argument's sake it may be called 
' novel/ a ' theory/ an ' hypothesis/ He really speaks of 
Papal Infallibility, not as if it were absolutely and proveably 
true, but as a choice of difficulties ; as if men made Rome in- 
fallible by yielding to her. He who formerly argued, and 
with no slight force of logic, and, as it seems, of reason, on 
the other side of these very questions, has now deliberately 
put himself into the position which he formerly described in 
these weighty words. " A Romanist cannot really argue in 
defence of the Roman doctrines ; he has too firm a confidence 
in their truth, if he is sincere in his profession, to enable him 
critically to adjust the due weight to be given to this or that 
evidence. He assumes his Church's conclusions as true ; and 
the facts or witnesses he adduces are rather brought to receive 
an interpretation, than to furnish a proof. His highest aim is 
to show the mere consistency of his theory, its possible ad- 
justment with the records of antiquity." Alas ! then, for the 
peace of mind of him, who instead of having grown into this 
state of blindness to evidence by the steady lifelong convic- 
tions of a born Roman Catholic, has first adopted a theory 
whose philosophical elements are capable, by his own confes- 
sion, of leading either to Rome or infidelity, and then delib- 
erately shuts his eyes J deliberately resolves henceforward " to 
have no higher aim than to show the mere consistency of his 
theory, and its possible adjustment with the records of anti- 
quity." 

But can a man do this ? Is it possible ? Are the eyes of 
the mind to be shut at pleasure? Is it possible to gain 
artificially the state of one born blind ? Inexpressibly painful 
as this part of the argument is, it must be spoken. If infi- 
delity, and the pressure of its theories, have driven a man, 
who thought and wrote as Mr. Newman thought and wrote, 
to that other " intellectual position," the Church of Rome ; 
and if he have reached that position, not by changing, or find- 
ing the weakness or insufficiency of his former views, but by 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



205 



adopting a philosophical, d priori theory, the effect of which 
is to transmute no-evidence into evidence, silence into con- 
firmation, a series of historical indications such as those 
alleged in pp. 22 and 23, (most of which are, when examined, 
really full of force against his own argument, and the remain- 
der of no force in favour of it,) into u a body of proof of the 
authority of the Holy See, then it is to be feared that we have 
not yet seen the end ; but that other changes, and deeper 
unhappinesses may ensue, (at least to those who adopt his 
argumentative grounds, without having the same moral pro- 
tection against the other dreadful alternative,) from the con- 
tinued pressure of the same miserable cause. An Anglican, 
learned and clear of view, can hardly become a happy Koman 
Catholic by means of a priori philosophy. Perfect peace 
can hardly be expected for such as, unable to relinquish their 
learning, or to annihilate their own arguments, endeavour 
to repose on an infallibility of their own creation, founded 
upon philosophical grounds of their own discovering. 

But it is time to consider the theory itself which has thus 
been wakened into life in order to bridge over the whole of 
the first three, and great part of the succeeding centuries of 
the Christian Church, in order to be the substitute for history. 
Greeds, Scripture, and consent of Doctors, in substantiating 
and supporting the Koman developments. 

I. Christianity came into the world as an idea. 

In a certain case, I presume, this position may be granted. 
The vision of " all Truth" which was granted to the Apostles 
was not given in words, but in the form, it is probable, of a 
mental illumination. To this divinely imparted conception 
doubtless no words could be adequate. To themselves it 
transcended all words; being richer, fuller, more various, and 
deeper than words could have imparted to themselves or could 
convey to others. By words it was immeasurable, inexhaus- 
tible. No doubt they spoke of it with great richness and 
variety of expression. In all their preachings in all the 

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newman's doctrine 



world, they clothed, no doubt, in much variety of language, and 
exhibited in many aspects, the glorious and unfathomable truth 
which God had revealed, by His Spirit, to themselves. But 
not all together, nor yet any multiplication of the vividest and 
justest words, or ways of speaking or writing, could ever 
have adequately spanned and measured, with full equality of 
dimension, the wonderful vision of truth which, it is probable, 
their eyes had seen, and their hearts contemplated. 

But in what form was the idea of Christian Truth com- 
municated from the inspired Apostles to their uninspired con- 
verts ? If it be granted that in St. Paul the mental concep- 
tion of the real objective Christian Truth was beyond all 
proportion greater and grander than the words in which he 
taught it, in what form was it conceived by the people whom 
he baptized or caused to be baptized at Corinth, Philippi, or 
Ephesus ? Did not they conceive what they were told ? We 
never heard, nor supposed that they were separately inspired. 
They heard a divine message of good tidings, and, the Lord 
opening their hearts, they believed it; but what ground is 
there for supposing that the idea which words imparted, over- 
passed, or was wider, or larger, or not bounded by these 
words ? As far as we know, G od implanted in their minds 
the idea of Christianity, no otherwise than by blessing the 
word of preaching to be effectual to them, and their hearts to 
be willing to receive it. How then should not their concep- 
tion of Christian truth be such as the words employed would 
naturally produce, the conception that corresponds to the 
words, and none other ? 

Of course it is not meant by such expressions to deny that 
this conception, so produced in the minds of uninspired con- 
verts, was itself capable of very many varieties of expression, 
and statement, and aspect, besides the one in which the actual 
preaching of the Apostles presented it to them. But all these 
varieties (and the range of them will be considered presently) 
would limit themselves rigidly to the true and logical scope of 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



207 



original Apostolic words. The original Apostolic words struck 
the type of the idea, and every permissible variety of state- 
ment or thought on the subject, must surely be strictly 
accordant with that type, and subservient to it as derived 
from it. 

II. Christianity came into the world as an idea, rather than 
an institution. 

Granted that in some sense Christianity came into the 
world as an idea, how is it to be granted that it did not come 
as an institution ? To the Apostles, perhaps, it came only an 
idea, but they left it an institution. They ordained the Dea- 
cons, who forthwith did signs and wonders, " spoke with 
wisdom and the Holy Spirit/' taught of the alteration of the 
law of Moses, preached Christ, and baptized, for they were 
not ministers of meats and drinks, but servants of the Church 
of God. They ordained Elders in every city, who were thereby 
made overseers of the flock of God by the Holy Ghost, and 
had authority to be united with the Apostles in council, and 
in a divinely inspired decree. They left successors in the 
cities, with authority to reprove, to govern, and to ordain. 
Such were " St. Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus," Titus, Bishop 
of Crete, and others whom the history records in various 
towns, so that "we are able to count," says St. Irenaeus, 
11 those who by the Apostles were appointed Bishops in the 
Churches, and their successors to our own time." How then 
can Mr. Newman possibly say, as he repeatedly does, that 
" St. Ignatius established the doctrine of Episcopacy," " ap- 
plied the fitting remedy" to dissensions, i. e. Episcopacy ; and 
that, though he himself in the next page calls St. Timothy 
Bishop of Ephesus ? What can this mean ? Alas ! does it 
mean that all is to be risked upon this a novel theory," and 
that the Episcopal constitution of the Church, as well as the 
doctrine of the Trinity, are to be absolutely given up, and 
pronounced indefensible, unless they are defended by an argu- 
ment which is to prove the supremacy of the Pope, and the 



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cultus of the blessed Virgin also ? Has Mr. Newman thus set 
his life upon the hazard of this die, and does he use all his 
wonderful stores of history and powers of argument to prove 
that we must also set ours ? G-od forbid. If any point of 
historical Christianity is clear, it is that the Apostles left the 
Church with its Creed, its triple constitution of Ministers, its 
Sacraments, its Scriptures ; left it an institution, a temple of 
Christ, in which He already dwelt as fully as G-od dwelt in 
Him, transfiguring it by degrees from glory to glory, making 
it fit to be presented to Himself a holy and blameless Church, 
not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. 

III. But again, every idea must of necessity admit of de- 
velopment. 

It is impossible, as far as I see, to deny it in the abstract. 
Perhaps all ideas of every sort and kind do admit of what 
may be called developments. But it is surely most certain 
that they admit of various sorts of development, according to 
their various kinds. 

For instance, an idea of physical things, conceived in a 
man's mind, who is the first to conceive it, is conceived in a 
seminal, imperfect, possibly very incorrect form. He tries it 
by experiment ; he applies it to many various cases. He tests 
it by ascertaining how it harmonizes or combines with other 
ideas which represent already ascertained truth. He tries 
how well it accounts for the phenomena which belong to it. 
Other people hear of it, they vary it in statement, regard it in 
different lights, use their own ways of thinking, and their own 
various knowledge, and modes of experiment upon it, and by 
degrees the original idea is developed inta a full, accurate, 
and exact conception. 

2. A social idea, again, admits of development. Man has 
had in great measure to find out and develope society for him- 
self. His instincts of natural affection lead him, to a certain 
extent, in the direction of a formed society ; but as he goes 
along, he thinks thoughts which are the germs of further 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



209 



things. On these he makes rules, enacts laws, sets on foot 
institutions. These things tend to encourage and keep up 
the idea on which they are themselves based, if it have any 
vitality in it ; if not, it soon dies out. By degrees it grows, 
expands, developes into a state, a polity, a legislation. 

3. Ideas of Religion, invented by man, may develope. The 
portion of truth which they represent keeping them from 
instant or very speedy decay, they will pass through changes, 
according to the fancies or interests of the different persons 
who entertain them, or as different obstacles impede them, or 
as different circumstances require new applications of them. 

4. Or a divine Religion, of prophetical or typical character, 
may develope, as the Jewish did. The Prophets developed 
the law. The kingdom developed the theocracy. But when 
the governors of that nation undertook to develope of them- 
selves, as they did from the days of the great Synagogue, 
then, in spite of the uniform character and naturalness of the 
developments, and the universality of their reception among 
the people, they justly incurred those strong denunciations of 
the Lord, "that they had made the word of G-od of none 
effect by their traditions." 

But will any, or all of these cases, or any like them, estab- 
lish an analogy by which we can pronounce that the idea of 
Christianity must of necessity be liable to similar develop- 
ments ? 

Surely not ; given once, given with inspiration ; an inspira- 
tion, not, as far as we know, continued to others besides the first 
preachers ; given " in the end of the world," so that " the ends 
of the world," that is, the fulfilment of all types and prophecies, 
"had come" on those who received it; given sothat though an 
apostle or an angel from heaven should preach any other Gos- 
pel, he should be accursed ; given for the salvation of mankind, 
and entirely adequate to effect that salvation to the thousands 
and millions of men who died before the first developments of 
Roman Catholic doctrine were heard of in the world ; how can 

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we possibly conceive that the analogy of physical, or social ideas, 
or the ideas of Mahometanism or J udaism establish the like- 
lihood, much less the certainty of developments of faith in it ? 
What perfection did the faith once delivered to the Saints 
need from development, if it were already Divine, if it were 
already so revealed as to be able to save men's souls ? There 
was a reason why those who received a good report through 
faith, in the Jewish history, received not the promise, because 
G-od had provided some better thing for His Christian people. 
What likelihood can be supposed to arise from that case to 
prove the imperfection of that " better thing" itself ? 

IV. But is it then to be denied altogether that the idea 
of Christianity, as imparted by the first inspired teachers to 
the uninspired converts, undergoes, or can undergo, develop- 
ment ? Allowing that it is guarded by appointed governors, 
pillared and grounded on the Church, fenced by Creeds and 
Scriptures, is it to be altogether denied that the mentally con- 
ceived truth, that is, the idea of Christianity, is capable of 
any of those varieties of statement, applications, differences of 
aspect, combinations of parts, exactnesses of identification, 
which Mr. Newman calls developments, confounding them 
thereby, as I think, with those doctrinal novelties which he is 
maintaining ? 

I have in the fourth of these discourses ventured to offer a 
distinction, arising out of the examination of the three Creeds, 
which appears to me, I know not how justly, to suggest the 
line of difference between true ecclesiastical developments, and 
those which the modern Church of Rome proposes to our sub- 
mission. I have there observed, that the Nicene and Atha- 
nasian Creeds, in so far as they differ from the Apostles' Creed 
and add to it, add to it nothing of a strictly affirmative kind, 
as a new matter of faith, but only such things as may be pro- 
perly accounted logical or negative. It will perhaps be well 
to explain my meaning more at length. 

On the supposition, explained in the foregoing discourses, 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



211 



that the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
sacredly delivered to the Apostles to baptize the world into, 
contains the sum of all Christian Truth, all the three Creeds 
may properly be called a development. The doctrine con- 
tained in the Name is, the greater part of it, only implicitly 
contained in it. This doctrine is evolved, enlarged, exhibited, 
developed, and the three Creeds contain what the Church in 
England holds to be the sole authoritative dogmatic develop- 
ment of it. 

Of this development, the first portion may be called Apos- 
tolical ; the second, ecclesiastical : the first is contained in the 
Apostles' Creed; the second in those parts of the Nicene 
Creed, which differ from the Apostles' Creed, and in the Creed 
of St. Athanasius. 

When we examine the Apostolic development, we find, in 
respect of its nature, first, that it unfolds new doctrine ; doc- 
trine, that is, which could not have been discovered to be 
implicit in the original terms of the baptismal institution by 
human sight, or deduced from them by human logic. Such 
are, for instance, the doctrines of the resurrection of the body, 
the life everlasting, the communion of saints, the session on 
the right hand of God. 

If we ask, secondly, on what ground of authority or know- 
ledge it did so, the answer is obvious, — because the Apostles, 
whose oral teaching it contained, were inspired by the Holy 
Ghost. Not only had they, as representing God's Church, 
the sacred presence of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, whose 
ordinary graces should be the inheritance of God's Church 
until the end of the world, but also separately and individually 
they had received that personal and extraordinary aid of the 
same Spirit, who, dividing unto men severally as He would, 
enabled them to say, as St. Paul said, that that which they had 
received of the Lord, they also delivered unto the Churches. 

But, thirdly, where are these developments to be found, and 



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newman's doctrine 



what assurance have we that we possess them, and possess 
them accurately? 

They are to he found in the Apostolic Epistles, and they 
are to be found in the authentic record of the Apostolic oral 
preaching, the Apostles' Creed. Either might have sufficed, 
if it had been God's will ; but He has given both. By God's 
good Providence, there is no portion of the record of the oral 
teaching, which He has not caused His penmen to substantiate 
by the less sophisticate evidence of written letters. Are 
there " gaps in the structure of the original Creed of the 
Church V The written record fills up the interstices, and 
shows us, not dogmatically, but according as the various occa- 
sions and persons addressed called for them, the general strain 
of doctrine and teaching which the Apostles used. Should 
we be at a loss, amid these undogmatic and untechnical 
writings, to distinguish fundamentals, to know precisely the 
salient points of the body of the faith once delivered to the 
saints? The Creed, duly testified and sanctioned by the 
Church, as containing the great record of the Apostles' oral 
teaching, supplies the deficiency, and sets forth " the word," 
" the way," " the faith," in a connected and dogmatic shape. 

And fourthly, and most importantly, the body of doctrine 
thus apostolically developed, was sufficient for the salvation of 
men. Those whom the Apostles baptized and taught, they 
always spoke of as unquestionably in possession of the full 
Christian privileges. They are sealed to the day of redemp- 
tion. They are light in the Lord. They are washed, they 
are sanctified, they are justified, in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and by the Spirit of Grod. They are come to the 
heavenly Jerusalem. They believe to the saving of their 
souls. 

Such then was the development of Christian doctrine which 
we call Apostolical ) and we may pause a moment before going 
on to consider what we have called ecclesiastical developments, 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



213 



to remark that herein is a full, complete, and sufficient system 
established for the purpose of carrying out the design of God, 
in the salvation of mankind. Whatever more may be needful 
in order to identify, guard, vindicate, save from misconstruc- 
tion, combine, apply this doctrine, nothing further can possibly 
be needful in the way of new doctrine. The faith once deli- 
vered to the saints, as it saved them, so would undoubtedly 
suffice to save all mankind even to the day of judgment. No 
new objects of worship, no new principles of duty, no new 
exhibitions of truth, can be conceived to be introduced after- 
wards, except on one of two equally inadmissible hypotheses, 
the imperfection of the explicit faith of the Churches founded 
by the Apostles, or the design of God by farther revelation, 
to make the Christian system not final. 

In examining the ecclesiastical developments, that is, those 
further decisions which were made in the Church, and acknow- 
ledged as duly and rightly made by universal adoption and 
acceptance in the Church, after the death of the first inspired 
teachers of the faith, we may first regard them (as was done 
in the case of the Apostolical developments), 

1. In respect of their nature. 

If the settlement of questions relating to the authenticity 
of books, or other writings, professing to be Apostolical, be 
rightly called a development, it is a development which belongs 
to this first head, and is one which plainly falls within the 
province of the remaining Church. The separate Churches 
to which Epistles were written, "had those very authentic 
letters recited among them, sounding the voice and represent- 
ing the face of each of the Apostolic writers." And the 
Gospels, which were the records of the acts and words certainly 
believed in the Church, had their own separate evidence of 
being written by men whom the Church knew to be " eye- 
witnesses and ministers of the word/' and divinely inspired 
to record what they had "seen and heard." Of the validity 
of all such separate evidence, it was the Church's province to 



214 



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judge ; and when at last the canon was established in the 
fourth century, she sanctioned by her authority the consenting 
voice of her own tradition of a matter of fact. In so doing, 
however, she no more claimed authority over the writings, or 
exercised a power of decreeing new articles of faith, than any 
person in common life who authenticates a document becomes 
by so doing lord of the document, or authoritative over its 
contents. 

2. The remaining Church possesses, most unquestionably, 
the practical power of applying the Christian institution, with 
its doctrines, and all other things belonging to it, to the 
various emergent circumstances of countries and times. There 
are, no doubt, many points, much more various and compli- 
cated than can be stated, in which the alterations which have 
taken place in society and government, in refinement of life 
and manners, and in the tone of thought and mind of man- 
kind, make adaptations, and alterations, and, if it please any 
person to call them so, developments of the practical parts of 
Christianity necessary, as the Church grows older. Thus, no 
doubt, the entirely new state of things produced in the Church 
by the sudden transition from a state of habitual persecution 
to one of acknowledgment and predominance, by the conver- 
sion of Constantine, as it opened new circumstances of difficulty 
and danger, and new opportunities of usefulness and good, so 
necessitated new practical adaptations of the Divine institution 
of Christianity, to meet and direct them. And so, if it is 
said, that " when the stream of the world was turned into the 
Church," monasticism naturally grew up, and was adequately 
and authoritatively sanctioned by the then Church, we may 
well acknowledge that such an institution was natural, and we 
may well believe that it was both wisely, and with adequate 
authority established, and yet it would not follow but that, 
upon abuse of the institution, or the cessation of the need of 
it, the same authority which established it, might again dis- 
allow it, either universally, for the whole Church, or in sepa- 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



215 



rate national Churches, for themselves. In all such practical 
cases, the decision of the Thirty-fourth Article appears to he 
most just and clear, that traditions and ceremonies (by which 
we may understand all practical directions for the application 
of the Christian institution to the various circumstances of the 
world,) need not be in all places one, and utterly like - } for at 
all times they have been diverse, and may be changed accord- 
ing to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners. 
Nor is the proviso added to this decision less unquestionably 
just and necessary, "so that nothing be ordained against 
God's word." Adaptations, or applications like these, must 
not add to, nor contravene, nor otherwise supersede or alter, 
the original revelation. It is a necessary province of the living 
Church to apply the already given revelation, with its essen- 
tial institution, to the varying occasions of the world ; but 
application does, by the very force of the term, imply that the 
original revelation, with its own proper institution, is scrupu- 
lously, exactly, and faithfully (that is, without essential change 
or addition) brought to bear upon those new occasions. 
' 3. Let us then consider what power of development in doc- 
trine, strictly so called, the post- Apostolic Church possesses. 
Granted that she is the proper authority to settle the authen- 
ticity of Christian writings, and to decree such practical 
applications, of the Christian institution, as the alterations of 
society, and the state of the world may render necessary \ how 
far can she alter, amend, or develope, the body of the doctrines 
which the Apostles left behind in their writings, and in the 
record of their oral teaching, the Apostles' Creed 1 

First, it is surely impossible to conceive that such develop- 
ments, whatever, and however great they may be found to be, 
can have any further scope, intention, or purpose, than to 
defend. The Christian doctrine, the engrafted word, was 
already able to save men's souls. What should it do more ? 
What other purpose has God declared in sending a revelation 
on earth, containing a body of divine doctrine, than this, — to 



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rescue man from the bondage of sin and Satan, to enable him 
to be born and grow in grace, and the knowledge and love of 
God, to give him the means of glorifying God by bearing 
much fruit, to make him a joint-heir with Christ of the king- 
dom of heaven ? Then, surely, it is beyond a question, that 
the powers of development of this body of doctrine, which the 
Church, after the death of the original inspired teachers, pos- 
sesses, must be expected to be confined to defensive develop- 
ments ; — developments, if they are to be so called, which 
shall effect that no injury be done to the original revelation, — 
no injury either by addition, or subtraction, or yet by corrup- 
tion, which shall cause the whole unadulterated revelation of 
God to be applied to the salvation of every succeeding genera- 
tion of Christian people, as the original revelation was applied 
to the salvation of those whom the Apostles themselves con- 
verted; developments strictly, absolutely, and exclusively 
defensive. 

And as, a priori, developments ecclesiastical could not be 
conceived to be likely to be other than defensive, so, a pos- 
teriori, it is clear, that the ecclesiastical developments of the 
later Creeds are strictly of this kind. They identify, and they 
combine ; and both identification and combination are strictly 
defensive processes. The Nicene Creed, in those parts of it in 
which it differs from the Apostles' Creed, identifies the Apostolic 
doctrine. It identifies it, because it had been departed from, and 
in those points in which it had been departed from. Heretics 
not only precede such defensive decisions, but they also choose 
the ground of them. The Church must follow to make good, 
and secure whatever points they have selected to assail. 
Heresy attempts to make a breach in the original revelation, 
not by express denial or unbelief of statements, unquestion- 
ably contained within it, but by means of new theories, by 
subtle distinctions, by evasions, by trying, as it were, to turn 
the flank, rather than assault the main strength of the truth ; 
and the Church at that challenge, cannot choose but identify, 



OP DEVELOPMENT. 



217 



develops if it be so called by any, what is already her own. 
For she is possessed, not of a mere form of sound words, 
which, however wisely chosen, might admit of all manner of 
evasions, and of being explained away, or nullified by theories, 
but of a real body of truth, which has, in itself, an aspect or 
front in every possible direction, but whose various aspects 
and fronts are unseen and unidentified, till the lurid light of 
heresy, ah extra, has exhibted the strength and completeness 
of its own essential defences. 

Thus is preceding heresy a necessary condition of a due, 
defensive development of Christian doctrine in the way of 
identification. And so, when the being and nature of our 
blessed Lord came to be the subject on which the spirit of 
heresy indulged in various imaginations and theories, and 
those imaginations and theories trenched so far upon the real 
vital body of the truth which the Church possessed, as to deny, 
by ultimate implication, the Divinity of the Son, she met and 
overthrew them in the Nicene Creed. In it she identified, 
for the purpose of defence, that which she had implicitly held 
throughout. r Eyi/co vopigovtsa, she recognised her own, she 
came to exactness of speech, because heretics had made bad 
use of her former simpler, and less exact expressions. The 
union and equality of the Father and the Son, which she 
always knew and held to be true and perfect, had been ex- 
hibited as untrue and imperfect by means of distinctions of 
u relations," of " will," &c, and therefore must she penetrate 
to the bottom of these distinctions, and assert the truth and 
perfectness of the Union and equality, in terms which should 
make these distinctions impossible. Her duty of defence was 
to be discharged, not by making new doctrines to serve as 
exterior lines, or redoubts to guard her original tenets, by re- 
adjusting the logical terms in which her original tenets were 
expressed. She must go deeper in philosophical expression, 
she must admit into her creed the term of " substance," she 
must re-state her fundamental truth, in the technical phrase 

19 



218 



newman's doctrine 



which would make it to be not only the old Catholic truth, 

hut also that truth protestant against error. 

Thus was her development of the doctrine of the Son of G-od 
in the Nicene Creed, in purpose defensive, in direction negative, 
or protesting, in manner of execution logical. She re-adjusted 
her terms by the introduction of more and more philosophical 
expressions, and she did so in order to contradict and banish 
the insidious distinctions and evasions of heresy, that thereby 
she might defend and preserve in its integrity (neither less 
nor greater than she had received it) the engrafted word, able 
to save men's souls, with which she was entrusted. The 
development of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost in the Council 
of Constantinople, is a second case of precisely the same kind. 
It had the same necessary conditions. It was preceded by 
heresy. It turned upon the exact choice of expressions. It 
did not in any degree overstep the explicit teaching of the 
Apostles, as recorded in the Canonical Scriptures. 

The case of the Athanasian Creed is so far different from 
the Nicene, as that it is to be regarded as an instance, not so 
much of identification (though it is that also in some degree) 
as of combination. Now combination appears to be as strictly 
within the defensive province of the living Church as identi- 
fication. It is not, indeed, so directly controversial, nor need 
it be immediately preceded by an express heresy. It ensues 
upon several identifications. Each identification has, as it 
were, scattered its own immediate enemies, and then, if I 
may so express myself, the separate bands of G-od's army con- 
centrate themselves into a mighty host of defenders of their 
inherited truth. They have not, nor ever had, designs of con- 
quest, or extension of empire ; enough for them if they can 
hand down unimpaired that which they themselves received. 
But with as little justice could an aggressive, invading, 
ambitious conqueror defend himself and his armies by the 
example of a patriot predecessor who had summoned his native 
troops to repel a foreign host landed on his shores, as the 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



219 



aggressive and invading developments of the Roman Catholic 
Church can find adequate precedent in the logical, identifying, 
combining, defensive developments of the ancient Creeds. 

The Athanasian Creed plumbed still further than the 
Nicene the depth of heresy, by the use of philosophical terms, 
such as those of " Person" and " Trinity >" but in tk« way of 
doctrinal development it did nothing more than combine into 
a connected statement the decisions which had be«rt separately 
made before. 

It is much to be observed, that these ancient ecclesiastical 
developments of doctrine, contained in the two later creeds, 
are confined to a single subject, — the nature of the Godhead. 
I have endeavoured to show, in the preceding discourses, that 
the summary of truth, as far as it was conveyed in words to 
the Apostles by the Lord, after His resurrection, was con- 
tained in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy G-host. How far this view (the view of many divines 
both of ancient and modern times) may be approved, I can- 
not say ; but it certainly seems to coincide remarkably with 
the actual course of the historical developments of doctrine 
subsequently made in the Church. The doctrines of the Son 
and of the Holy Ghost being fully settled, and the separate 
portions of the complex doctrine having been combined into 
the full statement of " One God in Trinity, and Trinity in 
Unity," the work of doctrinal development seemed to be done. 
The Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, was saved 
from open assault or insidious evasion, and thenceforth the 
universal Church knows no Creeds. Her work of develop- 
ment in doctrine in Creeds was finished. The saving Name 
was vindicated, and thenceforth to be applied, as from the 
first, so to the end, to the salvation of all mankind. 

Thus much then respecting the nature of ecclesiastical 
developments. They may consist of decisions respecting 
writings; practical applications of the Christian institution, 
as delivered by the Apostles, to the new circumstances of the 



220 



NEWMAN'S DOCTRINE 



world, within the limits of its own true, essential principles ; 
and defensive doctrinal decrees, identifying or combining the 
already believed truth, in the way of re-adjustment of expres- 
sion, and for the overthrow of previous heresy. 

2. Such then seeming to be the nature of ecclesiastical 
developments of the Christian system, what is the authority 
on which tfiey rest ? 

Simply, u,u the authority of the Church. 

Is it meant, on the authority of the Church in necessary 
communication with the See of Rome ? I answer confidently, 
that St. Polycarp had never heard of any such necessity, 
though the disciple and friend of St. John the Apostle, nor 
Origen, nor Tertullian, nor Polycrates, nor Firmilian, nor St. 
Cyprian ; and that although, in the following centuries, pas- 
sages are to be found in the writings of many Fathers, which 
may bear such an interpretation, yet that St. Augustine, St. 
Jerome, St. Chrysostom, when duly interpreted, bear equal 
witness against the same necessity. 

Where then is the Church, if it be not thus tied to a single 
see, and whence is its authority ? 

The Church is in all the world ; and its authority is in the 
presence of the Lord. The essential Church is there, where- 
soever two or three are duly gathered into the Sacred Name. 
The universal Church comprehends all these portions, though 
they be scattered on the earth, and even, if it so be, to their 
own great loss and diminution of blessing and grace, be dis- 
united externally, and refuse mutual communion and the 
interchange of Christian offices of love. 

How then shall the voice of the Church be known and 
recognised, if she be thus vast in size, thus uncompacted into 
a single monarchy under one see, thus incapable of speaking 
through the lips of any single ruler ? 

The rule of Vincentius of Lerins is the formula of her 
voice. Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. "What- 
ever can allege this amount of consent, has the universal 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



221 



voice, and so the plenary authority of the diffused Church of 
Christ. 

This "majestic evidence/' as it has been well called, can 
only be alleged in its full array of strength in favour of cer- 
tain great outlines of doctrine, the great Apostolical develop- 
ments, that is to say, the doctrines of the Creed. These are 
the only matters of faith, affirmatively developed, and neces- 
sary for salvation, which can adduce such support of every 
age, and such total absence of any adverse or contradictory 
Reaching as to come to us with what may be rightly regarded 
as the absolute unanimity of the Church, her full and plenary 
consent as to the truth of which she is the ground and pillar. 

Can then the canon of Vincentius be applied directly to the 
ecclesiastical developments, as I have called them, of the Ni- 
cene and the Athanasian Creeds, that is, to those portions of 
the two later Creeds which are not contained in the Apostles' 
Creed ? Let us consider. 

If it was rightly said above, that heresy must precede a due 
ecclesiastical identification of doctrine, then surely till that 
heresy has appeared, the particular identification necessitated 
by it will not have appeared \ i. e. if the Arian heresy caused 
and necessitated the use of the phrase " of one substance," 
then, till the Arian heresy appeared, that phrase could not 
have been used, or if used, must have been so casually, and 
not in the exact and definite way in which it is used in the 
Mcene Creed. Again, if combination of doctrines naturally 
(though not necessarily) ensues upon various separate identi- 
fications, then it is probable that the complex and combined 
doctrine of the Athanasian Creed will not be found stated 
with all its parts complete in the writers of an earlier period. 

To say, therefore, that " what we need is a sufficient num- 
ber of ante-Nicene statements, each distinctly anticipating 
the Athanasian Creed," as Mr. Newman says in his twelfth 
page, seems unreasonable on the face of it. If the Arian 
heresy brought out, so to speak, into light, the " unity of sub- 

19* 



222 



newman's doctrine 



stance/' how could the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, com- 
prising the unity of substance, and the distinction of persons, 
be looked for before the days of Arius ? 

Not to say that such a demand altogether overlooks that 
which it is my main purpose to establish, the difference be- 
tween affirmative and negative developments ; between new 
doctrines imposed and old doctrines identified, and combined ; 
between doctrines aggressive and doctrines defensive. 

How then, to repeat the question, can the Canon of Vin- 
centius be applied to the case of each due defensive develop- 
ment of the post- Apostolic Church ? Differently, I apprehend, 
before the decision and after it. 

Before the decision there must be implicit consent ; after 
the decision there must be explicit. Before the decision there 
must be that amount of substantial, equivalent, real, material 
agreement, which shall reasonably show that the identifying 
decree pronounces nothing else than the Church has all along 
meant, though she has never been called upon for that par- 
ticular manner of statement of it before. After the decision, 
there must be the recognising, accepting, approving consent 
of Christendom, ratifying the decree, and establishing the fact, 
that the council which passed it was a faithful and true expo- 
nent of the mind of the universal Church in so doing. For 
we attribute no infallibility to councils ; nor are any signs 
capable of being stated, before a council has met and passed 
its decrees, by which it shall be certain beforehand that its 
decisions will be right and true. The question is, in each 
case, whether it has or has not been a faithful exponent of 
the mind of the Church ; and that question can only be settled 
subsequently to the decrees being passed, and gradually, and 
often slowly. If a council have spoken the Church's mind, 
then the authority on which the decree rests is the authority 
of the Church, not of the council. If it have not, then it is 
the council which is devoid of authority, deceivable, and 
deceived, and not the Church. 



Or DEVELOPMENT. 



223 



But does, then, this manner of applying the Canon of Yin- 
centius to the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds involve the 
admission of the Creed of Pope Pius IV., and so of the whole 
body of those awfully connected developments which Mr. 
Newman has drawn out in his 154th page ? Mr. Newman 
thinks so. 

"It is irresistible," he says, "against Protestantism, and in 
one sense it is irresistible against Rome also, but in the same 
sense it is irresistible against England. It strikes at Rome 
through England. It admits of being interpreted in two 
ways ; if it be narrowed for the purpose of disproving the 
catholicity of the Creed of Pope Pius, it becomes also an 
objection to the Athanasian; and if it be relaxed to admit the 
doctrines retained by the English Church, it no longer excludes 
certain doctrines of Rome which that Church denies. It can- 
not at once condemn St. Thomas and St. Bernard, and defend 
St. Athanasius and St. Gregory Nazianzen." 

I am very far from thinking, that the distinctions which I 
have taken are the best, or the truest, still less the only ones 
which can be made to evade the force of this assertion of Mr. 
Newman's, and vindicating the ancient and universal Creeds, 
at the same time to disown the later and particular creed of 
the Roman Catholic Church. But I feel quite convinced that 
they are sufficient for the purpose ; that in truth there is essen- 
tial difference between the two cases, a difference so essential 
and so great, that the former developments are due, legitimate, 
and authoritative, while the latter ones, whereinsoever they 
add new matters of faith to the primitive Creed, are undue, 
presumptuous, and usurping. The former developments 
vindicated the Apostolic Creed, the latter ones altered it. 
The former developments proceeded upon the assumption of 
the completeness of the Apostolic Faith. The latter ones 
have no place nor intelligible meaning unless upon the 
hypothesis of its incompleteness. The former developments 
are grounded on the belief that God has, once, in the end of 



224 



NEWMAN'S DOCTRINE 



the world, made a revelation of Himself and His will for the 
salvation of the world. The latter ones suppose continual 
accessions of revealed truth. 

Take, for example, the development of the doctrine respect- 
ing the blessed Virgin. When Anastasius and Nestorius 
distinctly denied, and Dorotheus anathematized the use of the 
title ®eot6xo$, we hold that it was strictly in the province of 
the Church to defend, as St. Cyril of Alexandria did by the 
allegation of Holy Scripture, and nine great ancient Fathers, 
a designation of high importance to the integrity of the doc- 
trine of the Incarnation. But the Church defended it, not as 
a novelty, not as a good new name, not as a discovery, not as 
a development of new truth, involving relations, and so duties, 
unknown before, but as her ever-known, continual possession 
of truth now decreed and identified, because not till now 
denied. 

But how should the duties, how the " cultus," how should 
these have been unknown if they were really a part of the 
office of Christian worship and doctrine ? Doctrines may be 
implicit, may be unidentified, may be comparatively unseen 
till denied. But how can practices be implicit? If the 
blessed Virgin were worshipped in the Primitive Church, 
where are her ancient Liturgies, where the prayers that were 
paid her ? If she were not, how could it become a necessary 
part of Christian devotion to worship her in later years ? If 
she were truly an object of worship, how was she not wor- 
shipped by the Apostles ; worshipped from the day of Pente- 
cost ? Why are the traces of her worship not to be found in 
the Acts of the Apostles, in the Epistles of St. Paul, or the 
very late writings of St. John ? If she were not worshipped 
at first, how could she rightly be so afterwards ? 

But in Mr. Newman's view of this development it bears a 
very different aspect. " There was in the first ages no public 
and ecclesiastical recognition of the place which St. Mary 
holds in the economy of grace : this was reserved for the fifth 



Or DEVELOPMENT. 



225 



century, as the definition of our Lord's proper divinity had 
been the work of the fourth." And in another place he says, 
u Here" (that is, in the opening of the second part of Bishop 
Butler's Analogy) " is a development of doctrine into worship : 
in like manner the doctrine of the beatification of the Saints 
has been developed into their cultus ; of the 0? ot6xo$, or Mother 
of G-od, into hyperdulia ; and of the real Presence into adora- 
tion of the Host/' Here, then, we are distinctly taught that 
the "public and ecclesiastical recognition" of the doctrine of 
the ®£ot?6xos introduced a new thing, a worship unknown and 
unpaid before. This can only have been because the doctrine 
was unknown before (because, by the adopted argument of 
Bishop Butler, the duty of religious worship immediately 
arises out of the knowledge of the relations) ) and therefore it 
will follow, that according to this view, the Council of Ephesus 
discovered the doctrine, instead of pronouncing it (as we know 
they did) to be the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, and their 
predecessors in the Church. He therefore distinctly claims to 
the Church the right of adding to the primitive faith. 

It is unfortunate for the parallel which he draws between the 
doctrine developed at Nicsea and that at Ephesus, that the 
worship morally obligatory upon man because of the doctrine 
of the Son of God had been paid from the day of Pentecost, 
whereas that which after some centuries grounded itself upon 
the doctrine of the blessed Virgin, was totally unknown to 
the primitive ages. 

It is observable, too, that Mr. Newman speaks of doctrines 
being implicit in two different senses ; sometimes they are to be 
understood as doctrines held all along , but unidentified. Then 
comes heresy, and necessitates the true, legitimate, defensive 
development of identification. But at other times he speaks, 
as in the case of the doctrine of Ephesus, as if the develop- 
ment were a discovery of something unknown, and of new 
relations, on the ground of which there arise new and un- 
known duties of homage and worship. Indeed I believe, that 



226 



newman's doctrine 



his argument altogether consists of a confusion of these two 
senses; that his premises are in the first of them, and his 
conclusions in the second. 

But surely the claim of developments like this involves, as 
a necessary consequence, the imperfection of the faith of the 
Apostles and first Fathers, and the denial of honour and wor- 
ship, during hundreds of years, to one to whom, by the sup- 
position, it was really due. And if, on the contrary, the 
faith of the Apostles and first Fathers were really not imper- 
fect, but perfect and sufficient for salvation, and if the objects 
of worship made known by the revelation of the Holy G-host 
on the day of Pentecost, were really those to whom alone 
worship was due, then how can the conclusion be avoided, 
that the worship paid to the blessed Virgin is an offence 
against the first commandment, and the authority which en- 
joins it a presumptuous and usurping authority? 

Take again the instance of the supremacy of the Pope, as 
the supposed successor of St. Peter, and inheritor thereby of 
privileges and superiorities which it is beyond denial that St. 
Peter never possessed himself. What possible common nature 
is there between this case of supposed development, and the 
identifying, combining developments of the Nicene and Atha- 
nasian Creeds ? Unheard of by St. John and St. Paul, unmen- 
tioned by any father of the first three centuries, disowned by 
St. Poly carp, Poly crates, Firmilian, and St. Cyprian, how can 
this power have grown up, a new thing, a confessedly new 
thing, except by usurpation ? 

And what says Mr. Newman himself about it ? He speaks 
of it as a power of which there were but scanty notices in the 
ante-Nicene Church. Pie says that " a Pope would not arise 
but in proportion as the Church was consolidated that his 
power was at first " necessarily dormant j" that just as u the 
see of Canterbury has become the natural centre of the opera- 
tions of the English Church, as her prospects have opened, 
and her communion extended ; ;; so " no Church can do without 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



227 



its Pope and " we see before our eyes the centralizing pro- 
cess by which the see of St. Peter became the head of Chris- 
tendom;" "Christianity developed, as we have incidentally 
seen, in the form first of a catholic, then of a papal Church." 

Is this really argument ? Can Mr. Newman really mean, 
that the see of Canterbury has a divine right of government, 
and pro tanto infallibility, as the canonical superior of the sees 
of Calcutta and New Zealand ? Can he really mean that the 
episcopal power of other bishops having been in ante-Nicene 
times complete, did afterwards become incomplete and deriva- 
tive from Rome, as by degrees a natural process of centraliza- 
tion caused the bishop of that see to gain, rightly or wrongly, 
an authority over them ? An ordinary person would have sup- 
posed that this account of the rise of the popedom was written 
to prove it not to be divine ; to prove it to be the growth of 
human passions, and ordinary human events. But is it con- 
ceivable that a man should venture on such a portentous 
reductio ad ahsurdum as this, — the popedom is divine ; for if 
it is not divine, it is an usurpation, and that being an ab- 
surdity in terms, the point is proved, and it is divine ? And 
who could be prepared for the further step, — being divine, it 
is of course infallible ? " The common sense of mankind 
feels that the very idea of revelation implies a present inform- 
ant and guide, and that an infallible one " the absolute 
need of a spiritual supremacy is at present the strongest of 
arguments for its supply u Christianity being both social 
and dogmatic, and intended for all ages, must, humanly 
speaking, have an infallible expounder " in proportion as 
the cases multiply in which we are obliged to trust to her 
decision, do we approach in fact to the belief that she is infal- 
lible." 

And so the authority and the infallibility of the popedom 
depend upon the supposed d priori necessity for them, and 
the fact of their being claimed ! The Scriptures, the early 
Church, the completeness of early Christianity, go for nothing. 



228 



Newman's doctrine 



An " hypothesis/' " for argument's sake/' '* novel/' dis- 
covered in the nineteenth century, and a claim set up in the 
seventh, are together sufficient to prove the point. 

How can any person, then, possibly suppose that the 
developments of Christianity made in the Creeds of Nicsea, 
and St. Athanasius, give the smallest support of precedent or 
analogy to such baseless and extraordinary claims as these ? 
They identified and combined the doctrines already held, and 
held from the first, by the universal Church : these nullify 
primitive apostolically descended authorities, claim for a pro- 
cess of late-appearing centralization a divine sanction, and 
proceed to endow the local see thus elevated to a height not 
only unknown before, but actually denounced by a former 
pope as unchristian and unholy, with the sovereign and divine 
attribute of infallibility ! 

There is absolutely no likeness whatever between the cases. 
Identifying and combining developments of already possessed 
truth, are absolutely dissimilar to aggressive ones of new doc- 
trine, involving usages and worship before unheard of ; and 
the claim of Church authority, exercised by independent 
bishops in all the world, is entirely destructive of the subse- 
quent claim of a developed monarchy, in which the bishop of 
Rome is represented as the single bishop of the Church, the 
king of kings, Christ on the earth. 

It may be observed in conclusion, that the very peculiar 
and extraordinary nature of Mr. Newman's theory seems to 
throw a still greater shadow of mystery over the many seces- 
sions to the Roman Catholic Church which we are lamenting, 
than lay upon them before. 

It is as inconceivable that other minds have been swayed to 
take the same step, on the same augmentative grounds, as it 
is that the authorities of the Roman Church should sanction 
and approve those augmentative grounds. 

The book is an idiosyncrasy. It contains Mr. Newman's 
intellectual confessions; but those confessions cannot con- 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



229 



ceivably depict the state of other minds, or at least not of 
many besides his own. As well might you attempt to pursue 
the exact track of a bird through the air, or through a wood, 
as to find other minds to reach Rome through the same 
devious intellectual course which Mr. Newman has traversed. 
Earnestly convinced, a few years since, that the English 
Church held a true, independent, Catholic position, he has 
been distressed and shaken by the " fertility of thought/' the 
many theories, the " more hopeful position of infidelity" in 
these days. He has sighed for an infallible guide ; he has 
felt the absolute need of a living governor, from whose lips 
he might receive the full detailed rule of faith and practice, 
without doubt or question. He has been disposed to hope 
that the absolute necessity which he felt of such a spiritual 
supremacy formed a good argument to prove that it was actually 
given. And then a passage or phrase of M. Gruizot has fallen 
as a spark upon this prepared state of mind and feeling, and 
produced this melancholy explosion. No matter if the very 
theory itself is unknown to the Romish controversialists. The 
theory itself may be applied to heal its own defects. Implicit 
tenets may well have been defended by implicit arguments. 

But where shall there be found another mind which has 
known all this experience, and traversed all this course ? a 
mind, which, having originally been attached to the low, or 
evangelical view of doctrine, was afterwards so lucidly and 
learnedly convinced of the soundness of the Anglican theory ; 
a mind so distressed and agitated in its intellectual depths by 
the aggression of infidel dangers, a mind so yearning for a 
position of spiritual slavery, as the only intellectual dry land 
out of the flood of unbelief ; a mind ready to take up a hint 
from a modern philosopher, and spin it into a bridge to pass 
the chasm that separates popery from primitive Christianity j 
a mind so stored with learning, able to press to its purpose so 
vast a variety of illustrative matter, and to urge an argument 
with so lucid and forcible a logic ; a mind capable of reading 

20 



230 



newman's doctrine 



history all of a sudden with new eyes, and representing facts 
and statements, distinctly relevant to its point, in the very 
light which it has itself recognized and described as uncandid 
and untrue before ? 

And if this be so, then what is that other secret, unex- 
plained cause which has led so many others — friends, col- 
leagues, pupils, alas ! many of us do most sorrowfully recognise 
among their number, to take this bold, this fearfully bold and 
dangerous step, and cut themselves off from the unity of the 
Church in which they were baptized an4 bred ? 

I believe it to be, in many cases, a genuine yearning after 
holiness ; a genuine desire to be good, to be devoted, to be 
self-denying ) not an intellectual, but a moral and devotional 
craving, which has led to this melancholy consequence. They 
have no sense of infidel pressure j they have no deep intel- 
lectual struggles which must find a bottom in papal infalli- 
bility, or be lost in the ocean of scepticism. They were living 
in peace of mind, and endeavouring to make their heavenly 
calling and election sure, in the state of life to which God 
had called them, till the report of greater helps to holiness in 
the Roman Communion, and the example of one man whose 
life had exhibited the picture of sacred devotion, led them to 
forsake all they knew, — the Church of their baptism, the 
hopes, the thoughts, the lessons, the principles of their youth, 
and take this desperate plunge. 

Alas ! for them, then, for they have been deceived ; and, 
alas ! for those, if there be any, who, in the same true, but 
unchastened love of God and holiness, shall yet follow their 
steps ! They have left a position in which Grod placed them ; 
in which they had duties, and helps, and sacred hopes of an 
eternal inheritance; in which, if there were corruptions of 
practice around them, and imperfections in the full carrying 
out of the primitive institution of the Church, yet these things 
might have tried their simple dutifulness of heart, have tested 
their patience, have given them scope for being instruments 



OF DEVELOPMENT. 



231 



of great blessing to the Church of their baptism. But they 
have chosen otherwise. They have fretted themselves into 
impatience and undutifulness. They have plunged desperately 
for what they will not find. They have condemned the Eng- 
lish Church without sufficiently deliberate trial ; they have 
taken it for granted, without the possibility of trial, that in 
Rome they shall find holiness, perfection, and peace. 

But who shall secure them against further doubts ? Who 
shall block up the access of all those same repinings of spirit, 
and intellectual and moral distresses of mind, to which they 
have so far yielded ? When they find that human frailty 
pursues them even in their desperate flight, that the practical 
corruptions of Borne are not less shocking than the practical 
imperfections of England, when they find themselves sur- 
rounded by creature-worship, bound to pay respect to lying 
wonders, such as the holy coat of Treves, and the liquefaction 
of St. Januarius's blood, involved in the long series of incon- 
sistencies, usurpations, and corruptions, to which the infalli- 
bility of Borne stands pledged ; when they find, that in order 
to relieve their faith from the difficulties which it was not 
manly enough to face at home, they have been burthened 
with the thousand times greater weight of the Bomish doc- 
trine of every successive age, and that in order to quicken 
their devotion, they have exchanged the sobriety of primitive 
prayers for the blasphemous corruptions of the Litany of 
Bonaventure, where will they then fly for comfort, or what is 
the next and last stage in the development of such unhappy 
restlessness 'and impatience of spirit ? 



APPENDIX. 



Page 37. 

S. Cyprian, adv. Judgeos, lib. ii. c. xxvi. — Quod cum resur- 
rexisset, acciperet a Patre omnem potestatem ; et potestas ejus 
asterria sit. 

Apud Danielem : Videbam in visu nocte, et ecce, in nubi- 
bus coeli quasi Alius hominis veniens venit usque ad Veterem 
dierum, et stetit in conspectu ejus, et qui assistebant ei obtu- 
lerunt eum : et data est ei potestas regia, et omnes reges terrae 
per genus : et omnis claritas serviens ei : et potestas ejus 
aeterna, quae non auferetur, et regnum ejus non corrumpetur. 
Item apud Esaiam : Nunc exsurgam, inquit Dominus, nunc 
clarificabor, nunc exaltabor, nunc videbitis, nunc intelligetis, 
nunc confundemini : vana erit fortitudo spiritus vestri, igui vos 
consumet. Item in Psalmo 109 : Dixit Dominus Domiuo 
meo, Sede ad dexteram meam, quoadusque ponam inimicos 
tuos suppedaneum pedum tuorum : Virgam virtutis tuae mittet 
Deus a Sion : et dominaberis in medio inimicorum tuorum. 
Item in Apocalypsi (Rev. i. 12 — 18). Item in Evangelio, 
Dominus post resurrectionem : Data est mihi omnis potestas 
in coelo et in terra : ite, ergo, et docete omnes gentes, tingentes 
eos in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, docentes eos 
observare omnia qusecunque prascepi vobis. 

Page 99. 

On the use of the words \0 Ti6$ tov 'Av9^7tov in the New Testa- 
ment. 

It has been often observed, that the appellation ' O ribs tov 
'AvO^rtov is only used of our Blessed Lord by Himself, until 

20* 



234 



APPENDIX. 



the Ascension; and only once by any other person in the 
New Testament afterwards, — that is, by St. Stephen, in Acts 
vii. 56. 

There can be no doubt of its general meaning as so used. 
As the expression vlbs avd^Ttov twice used of our Lord in the 
Book of Revelations, and once in St. John's Gospel, 1 and, 
recurring continually in the Prophet Ezekiel, in the Psalms, 
and other places of the Old Testament, probably means a 
man, one bom of human race, so 6 Ttoj tov 'Avd&Hov means, 
the man, the one of human race, the particular single eminent 
man. Without the articles, the expression seems to signify, 
by a common Hebrew idiom, a man ; just as the correspond- 
ing phrase is used of men, " As many as are led by the Spirit 
of God, 2 ovtoi slocv vioi ®soi>, they are the sons of God." With 
the articles, it is no longer a mere description, but a descrip- 
tive appellation, " Whom do men say that I, the Soji of Man, 
am?" 3 It is true that in one place the expression toi$ vlm$ 
tCjv avd^rtuv is used of men in general (rtdvta a^id^asrao ra 
a/xa^tr^tata toi$ utotj tuv di^wrtwr.) 1 This use, however, is 
perfectly simple, and different from the one of which I am 
speaking. The first article is wanted in the sentence to give 
dcfiniteness to the word w<m, and the second is added by the 
ordinary rule, which attaches the article to the second noun, 
whensoever it has been attached to the first. Besides, being 
used in the plural number, the expression has no semblance 
of an appellation, or proper descriptive designation, which is 
the manner in which it is so often used of our Lord. 

The first article, then, 'O Tibs, contradistinguishes from other 
sons, o vl6$ *u>p vlu)v. The second either marks the abstract 
noun, tov 'AvOgartov, of humanity, or human stock, (as Grotius 
interprets, " Nam 6 vlbs %ov avO^rtov recte dicitur cum de 
generis humani universitate agitur. Saepe enim articulus 
notat tb xado'kov totuni genus," 5 ) or, what is more probable, is 
added to the latter noun, because the former one has also an 
article ; which is the interpretation of Bp. Middleton. 

The appellation then, O Tibs tov 'Avd&Ttov, is used by our 
blessed Lord, of Himself, eighty-two times in the New Testa- 
ment. Of these instances, thirty-two occur in St. Matthew, 
fourteen in St. Mark, twenty-six in St. Luke, and ten in St. 

1 Rev. i. 13 ; xiv. 14 ; but vide Bp- Middleton, p. 246, on St. John v. 27. 

2 Rom. viii. 14; ix. 26. 3 St. Matt. xvi. 13. 

4 St. Mark iii. 28. 5 Grot, in Marc. ii. 28. 



APPENDIX. 



235 



John j many, that is, in all, but fewest in the deepest, and, if 
we may say so, the divinest of the Gospels, where nevertheless 
the Heavenly JSonship is spoken of thirty-one^ times, more fre- 
quently, that is, than in any of the others. 

In far the greatest number of instances, the appellation of 
the Son of Man is used to express either the humiliation of 
our Lord, as a man, or his glorification, as a man. 

First, It expresses his humiliation ; as, — 

1. He has not where to lay his head. (St. Matt. viii. 
20. St. Luke ix. 58.) 

2. He must suffer. (St. Matt. xvii. 12. St. Mark viii. 
31 j ix. 12. St. Luke ix. 22.) 

3. He is betrayed. (St. Matt. xvii. 22 ; xx. 18 ; xxvi. 
2, 24, 25. St. Mark ix. 31 j x. 33; xiv. 21, 41. 
St. Luke ix. 44; xviii. 31; xxii 22, 48; xxiv. 7.) 

4. He gives his life. (St. Matt. xx. 28. St. Mark 
x. 45. 

5. He is lifted up. (St. John iii. 14 ; viii. 28 ; xii. 34.) 

6. He is buried. (St. Matt. xii. 40. St. Luke xi. 30.) 
Of these particulars of humiliation, none (except His being 

• lifted up) occur in St. John ; and this one is not found in any 
of the other three G-ospels. 

Secondly, It is used to express the glorification of His 
human nature : — 

1. Angels ascend and descend upon him. (St. John 
i. 52.) 

2. The hour draws near for his glorification. (St. John 

xii. 23; xiii. 31.) 

3. He rises from the dead. (St. Matt. xvii. 9. St. Mark 
ix. 9.) 

4. He ascends. (St. John vi. 62.) 

5. He is at the right hand of God. (St. Matt. xxvi. 64. 
St, Mark xiv. 62. St. Luke xxii. 69.) 

6. He is to return to judge; with a sign in heaven; like 
lightning ; with angels ; in the clouds ; sitting on the 
"throne of his glory; will send his angels to gather 
his elect. (St. Matt. x. 20 ; xvi. 27, 28 ; xix. 28 ; 

xiii. 41 ; xxv. 31 ; xxiv. 27, 30, 37, 39, 44 ; xxv. 13 ; 
xxviii. 19. "St. Mark viii. 38; xiii. 26. St. Luke 
xii. 8, 40 ; xviii. 8 ; ix. 26 ; xvii. 24, 26, 30 ; xii. 40 ; 
xxi. 27, 36.) 

These two uses of the appellation will explain far the great- 



236 APPENDIX. 

est number of passages in which it occurs in the New Testa- 
ment. There remain about twelve, in which the appellation 
is given to our Lord equally decisively, but without so direct 
reference to either of these two states of humiliation or glori- 
fication. Such are the following: "The Son of Man hath 
come eating and drinking," " He that soweth the good seed 
is the Son of Man/' " Whom do men say that I, the Son of 
Man, am V " The Son of Man is come to save that which was 
lost," the " days of the Son of Man," " unless ye eat the flesh 
of the Son of Man." 

Respecting these two main uses of this expression, Bishop 
Middleton remarks 6 : "I have, "indeed, observed, that in a 
majority of the places in which our Saviour calls Himself the 
Son of Man, (and He is never in the New Testament so called 
by others before His ascension,) the allusion is either to His 
present humiliation or to His future glory : and if this remark 
be true, we have, though an indirect, yet a strong and per- 
petual declaration, that the human nature did not originally 
belong to Him, and was not properly his own. He who shall 
examine the passages throughout with a view to this observa- 
tion, will be able duly to estimate its value : for myself, I 
scruple not to aver, that I consider this single phrase, so em- 
ployed, an irrefragable proof of the pre-existence and divinity 
of Christ." Bishop Horsley puts the same remark still more 
forcibly : " The Son of Man and the Son of God are distinct 
titles of the Messiah. The title of the Son of Man belongs to 
Him as God the Son : the title of the Son of God belongs to 
Him as man. The former characterizes Him as that one of 
the Three Persons of the ever blessed Trinity which was 
made man ; the other characterizes Him as that man which 
was united to the Godhead." 7 

I therefore will assume, that whensoever the appellation of 
the Son of Man is used for our blessed Lord, there is some 
particular meaning intended by it : that it is not a mere proper 
name, signifying, without distinction, Himself in all his nature : 
but that His being born of a human parent, and possessing 
truly the entire proper nature of a man, is so conveyed in the 
appellation, as to require not to be forgotten in the interpreta- 
tion of the passages in which it occurs. 

There are, then, a few passages on which I desire to make 



. Page 247. 



( 7 Bp. Horsley, Seim. xii. 



APPENDIX. 



237 



a few particular observations, inasmuch as the meaning of 
them seems to be considerably affected by the introduction of 
this appellation. 

I. The first of these is found in St. Matthew xii. 32 ; St. 
Mark iii. 28 ; and St. Luke xii. 10. It is thus given by St. 
Matthew : " Whosoever speaketh against the Son of man, 
it shall be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh against the 
Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 
neither in the world to come." 

I notice this passage in. order to observe, that if the appel- 
lation o Tc6s rov 'Avdgu>7tov is to be allowed any weight in the 
interpretation of our Lord's words, then the comparatively 
venial blasphemy here spoken of is not that against the Second 
Person of the Holy Trinity, in comparison of the Third, but 
against man in comparison of God. For the blasphemy of 
which the Jews had been guilty, and which led to these 
words, (on iixeyov, rtvsvpa axdda^op t#ft, 8 ) had in fact been 
against our blessed Lord, and only against the Holy Ghost in 
and through Him. This is the interpretation of many com- 
mentators. 9 The meaning is thus given by St. Jerome: 1 
" Whoever shall say a word against the Son of Man, scan- 
dalized at my flesh, and thinking me only a man, because I 
am the son of the carpenter, and have for brothers James and 
Joseph and Judah, and am a man gluttonous and a wine- 
bibber; such an opinion, without blasphemy, although it is 
not devoid of the fault of error, yet may be pardoned on 
account of the vileness of the body. But he who while he 
plainly recognizes the works of God, being unable to deny 
his virtue, yet through envy calumniates them, and says that" 
Christ, the Word of God, and the works of the Holy Spirit 
are Beelzebub ; for him there shall be no forgiveness, either 
in the present world or in the future." 

There is no need, for the present purpose, to go into any 
further interpretation of this verse ; only it may be added, that 
it seems, when understood as above, to signify that the general 
nature of irremissible sin is the plainly seeing manifestations 
of Divine power, and yet deliberately shutting up one's heart 
against them, whether this be done by determining d priori 
that we will not believe them, or resisting them when they 

8 St. Mark iii. 30. 9 Vid. Hammond, Macknight. 

1 Hieron. in Matt. torn. ix. 12. 



238 



i 

APPENDIX. 



appear. So that the Christian temper most opposite to the 
u presumptuous sins" which constitute " the great offence" is 
the temper of waiting to see what Grod may be pleased to do, 
of being ready to acknowledge it if it should come, and keep- 
ing our hearts open to the consciousness of his presence, his 
power, and of our ignorance of the ways in which He may be 
pleased to manifest Himself. But it is better to pass from 
this verse, as one of extreme difficulty (St. Augustine doubts 
if there be any more difficult in the whole of Holy Scripture, 
so that his custom was, as he says, to shun it in all popular 
preaching, 2 ) and consider another which occurs in the same 
chapter. 

II. Our Lord said, in the 8th verse of the twelfth chapter 
of St. Matthew : " For the Son of man is lord even of the 
Sabbath day." The same saying is found in St. Luke vi. 5, 
and more fully in St. Mark ii. 28. 

Two versions are often given of this passage, neither of 
which seems satisfactory. One is thus boldly stated by 
Grrotius : " Errant qui vlbv rov avO^rtov hoc loco Christum 
peculiariter intelligunt. Christus enim in terris agens Legi se 
subditum professus est, neque ei aut derogavit aut abrogavit, 
sed ex Patris sententia earn est interpretatus, suamque inter- 
pretationem et Legis auctoritate et ductis ex aequo bonoque 
argumentis confirmavit. Est ergo hie w6$ dvd^rcov homo 
quivis : quod ita apertum facit Marcus, ut contradici nequeat. 
Ita enim apud ilium loquitur Christus, i Sabbatum est hominis 
causa, non homo Sabbati causa, : quare Alius hominis etiam 
Sabbati est Dominus.' " The other version may be taken 
from Dr. Hammond, who, taking no notice of the peculiar 
appellation, and seeing that an interpretation such as that of 
Grrotius would prove every man Lord of the Sabbath, inter- 
prets of Christ, as Gi-od : arguing " He that gave the positive 
Law can dispense with the observance of it." 

Each of these interpretations appears to have a point of 
strength which is not found in the other. Is it not then pos- 
sible to combine these points, and interpret this verse without 
omitting either the force of the peculiar appellation, or the 
argument as stated by St. Mark ? The following suggestions 
appear to me not inadequate to this object. 

The Sabbath iyhsto Swx> tou dvO^rtov, ov% 6 dvOgioTtos 6ui tb 



2 Vol.v. p. 388. 



APPENDIX. 



239 



odppatov : that is, if I rightly understand, the Sabbath was 
instituted for man's good, and after man was himself created. 
Man was not created in order to keep the Sabbath. The 
Sabbath was not itself a previous moral condition which man 
was created to fulfil. On the contrary, man was created first ; 
and then, subsequently to his creation, a law, positive in its 
own kind, and having his good for its object, was laid upon 
him, and in him upon all his posterity. "Q.6ts, so that, that is, 
from the peculiar nature of the law, as a positive law, of the 
creation, it follows that man's good is its rule. Is then every 
or any man, " homo quivis" according to Grotius, at liberty to 
apply the rule according to his own judgment of the way in 
which he may think the law most likely to conduce to his 
good ? Nay, but o vtos tov avd&Ttov, the man, the greatest of 
the sons of men, the son in the house of which Moses was but 
the servant, he whom G-od hath specially anointed and sent 
into the world, is He who may adapt, re-arrange, apply the 
positive law to its great uses. He does not, indeed, now claim, 
as God, to abrogate a positive law of God's original appoint- 
ment, but as the Son of Man to be its Lord. And let it be 
observed in passing, that the instances which our Lord alleges 
of David, and the priests in the temple, are not instances of 
breaking the law of the Sabbath ; for the case of David is 
quite of another sort, and the priests acted according to the 
very letter of the law, as written in the Book of Numbers ; 3 
so that He is the first, except Moses, to claim any power of 
alteration or addition to this ancient law. 

And here I may observe, that there are two, laws, which, in 
the particular respects now referred to, seem to be remarkably 
similar to one another ) the law of the Sabbath, and the law 
of Marriage. They are, so to say, the two laws of the Crea- 
tion 3 not original moral laws, so impressed upon the very 
nature and heart of man, as to be morally discoverable by the 
mere force of his natural, unsophisticated reason, but laws 
positive, passed by God's express enactment, subsequently 
to the Creation of Mankind, and binding upon all humankind 
through their first parents. They are respectively, as it were, 
the law which guards Morality, and the law which guards 
Religion — entrusted in Adam to humankind, the original 
matter of the first service of God, the property of the whole 



3 Numb, xxviii. 9. 



240 



APPENDIX. 



race of man. In the case of both of these laws (ol *ov 
av9c,u>7tov iytvovto, oi>% o (ivd^caitoi 8ia tovtov$) an alteration was 
introduced by Moses, speaking God's words, as a faithful 
servant. In the law of marriage he enacted, " When a man 
hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that 
she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some 
uncleanness in her, then let him give her a writing of divorce- 
ment, and give it in her hand, and send her away." The law 
of the Sabbath he surrounded with various particulars of 
strictness : he added the Sabbatical year and the jubilee ; in 
air these things going far beyond the letter of the law of the 
creation. And in both, the Lord, l O Tids toy 'AvO&nov, was 
Kv£«>s. As Moses 8m r'jyV oxtygoxapSlav avtuv had relaxed the 
strictness of the one, and added strictness to the other, (for 
moral relaxation and ceremonial strictness belong, however 
dissimilar they may seem, to the same character of hardness 
of heart,) so our Lord, the Son of Man, re-adjusted both 
laws. It had not been so from the beginning. He disallowed 
the easiness of divorce in the one case, restoring the law of 
marriage to its primitive simplicity; and by His Apostles 
He renewed the ancient form of the Sabbatical Law, abro- 
gating its Mosaical ceremonies, and appointed a new day 
among the seven, to commemorate the new creation of the 
world in the Resurrection from the Dead. 

III. The next passage is given by St. Matthew ix. 6. St. 
Mark ii. 10, and St. Luke v. 24, (there only being a very 
slight and immaterial transposition in St. Mark's account.) 

If we may pursue the same method of interpreting this 
appellation in this place as in the former ones, it will follow 
that our blessed Lord here forgives sins, and raises the para- 
lytic, not as God, but as man. The Scribes had asked, " Why 
doth this man speak blasphemies ? Who can forgive sins but 
God only V Our Lord in His reply neither denies the pre- 
rogative of God to be the only forgiver of sins, nor claims to 
forgive them as being God himself. All that He alleges in 
this place is, that He, o vibs rov avdgurtov, truly human as He is, 
yet most eminent and glorious of humankind, has £%ovoia to 
forgive sins irti atys yijs- 

'E%ovoia, that is, permission, or delegated power. For as 
s'tscji't is " licet/' "it is permitted," so i^ovaia is licence or 
authority emanating from higher power. That this is the 
meaning of the word in this place, (as indeed it always is in 



APPENDIX. 



241 



the New Testament, in spite of some seeming exceptions 
which, when fully examined, support rather than overthrow 
this interpretation,) is clear from the comment of the Jews 
themselves upon our Lord's words : " But when the multitude 
saw it they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such 
power unto men." 

'Ertc t^s yjyj — that is, in opposition to in Heaven. Thus in 
the 18th chapter of St. Matthew, "Verily I say unto you, 
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : 
and' whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in 
heaven." These are the two pardons to which our Lord refers 
in the passage which we just now considered, when He says, 
i It shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the 
world to come.' It is to be observed that all these three ex- 
pressions, the Son of Man, the Exousia, and " upon the earth/' 
are repeated by all the three Evangelists. 

IV. When we pass from these passages to examine two 
remaining ones, which occur in St. John's Gospel, we seem to 
pass at once into a more mysterious and difficult class of doc- 
trines from those which we have been considering hitherto. 

The first of these occurs in the 3d chapter of St. John, at 
the 13th verse. The second is in the 6th chapter, at the 
62 d verse. 

The principal modern interpretations of these verses appear 
to overlook the point on which I am principally insisting, the 
appellation, namely, of o Ttoj tov 'Avd&itov, or, if they take 
notice of it at all, do so only in order to observe that the name 
is given, not with particular meaning, but in the same sort of 
way as in some other passages ' the Prince of Life' is said to 
have been crucified, the Lord of Glory to have suffered, and 
God to have purchased a Church with His own blood, 5 that is 
to say, (they are the words of Whitby,) ' the Son of Man is in 
Heaven, not as the Son of Man, but as the Son of God ' 

Yet when we consider that this peculiar title is used, as I 
have said, upwards of eighty times in the New Testament, and 
in almost every instance with a distinct and most unequivocal 
reference to our Lord's Humanity, and that in the other eight 
passages in which St. John records the use of it by our Lord, 
it is used equally decisively in the same sense, we can, I 
think, hardly help supposing that in these two difficult verses 

5 Acts iii. 15. 1 Cor. ii. 8. Acts xx. 28. 

21 



242 



APPENDIX. 



it is used with the same meaning, or that, to say the least of 
it, if these interpretations be, as 1 believe they are, true in the 
main, yet there is some good and probably assignable reason 
why this particular appellation is here used. To which con- 
sideration it is to be added, that, to a certain extent, there can 
be no doubt that the appellation, even in these two passages, 
has its own distinct signification ; for when our Lord in the 
one passage spoke of His own witness, and in the other of 
His Ascension, He surely meant to say that He, poor and 
merely human as He seemed, was yet able to witness of 
heavenly things, and would hereafter visibly ascend into 
Heaven. 

If then the appellation is to be considered as so forming 
part of our Lord's sayings, as to require to enter into the in- 
terpretation of them, two very considerable difficulties imme- 
diately present themselves : the one, that ( the Son of Man' is 
said to have descended from heaven, where He was -to nporspov, 
ever before ; the other, that He is said, even while He was on 
earth, to have been in Heaven, 6 vt6$ toy <xv8pc>7tov u we h tc> 

It may be observed, that these two sayings are very similar 
to one another, — and therefore that they may be considered to 
support and throw some light upon one another. If we may 
say it with reverence, each seems to put 'the Son of Man* 
beyond the ordinary laws which govern the world : the one 
seems to speak of Him as independent of the laws of time, 
the other of space ; by the one He seems to be said to have 
been, and in some sort to have ever been, before His human 
birth ; by the other to have been, and with a sort of divine 
being to be as Son of Man, even in His manhood, in Heaven 
even while He was in the earth. 

Now these are plainly very mysterious and difficult sayings ; 
and if, as we do not doubt, every word of Holy Scripture is 
so divinely inspired and guarded as to be entirely free from 
all suspicion of indistinctness, or impropriety of expression, it 
seems to be hardly reverent to assume that they are used 
without some real meaning. Let us, then, for a few moments, 
endeavour to pursue the train of thought to which they lead. 
And first, of the saying that the Son of Man came down from 
Heaven. 

Let it be observed, then, that there are several other pas- 
sages of Holy Scripture which seem to speak in somewhat the 



APPENDIX. 



243 



same language : as in the third chapter of St. John, we have 

the words 6 -tov ov^avov jcoWa^aj, o vl6$ tov av9pu>7tov, SO, as I 

have already referred, we have in the sixth chapter, " What, 
and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he 
was before." So again, in other verses of the sixth chap- 
ter of St. John, it is said, that the living bread of God 
came down from heaven, (in some true sense in which the 
manna in the wilderness did not come down from heaven,) 
and that that bread is His Flesh, the Mesh of the Son of Man. 
Not very unlike to this, again, is the saying of St. Paul to the 
Corinthians, that the first man is of the earth, earthy; the 
second man is the Lord from heaven. And again, the pas- 
sage of the Revelations, 6 in which we read of " the Lamb slain 
from the foundation of the world," seems to contain a remark- 
able acknowledgment of some manner in which the manhood 
and death of Christ were not directly dependent upon the 
ordinary laws of time. And this last passage becomes still 
more remarkable when we consider how strongly it contrasts 
with St. Paul's expressions to the Hebrews, "Nor that he 
should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the 
holy place every year with blood of others j for then must he 
often have suffered since the foundation of the world : but now 
once in the end of the world hath he appeared, to put away 
siir-by the sacrifice of himself." 

Let it not be imagined for a moment that I allege these 
passages with any idea of arguing that our blessed Lord, the 
Son of Man, descended from heaven. This, indeed, was the 
heretical doctrine of Apollinarius of which Gregory Nazianzen 
speaks in the following terms of most just severity : " If any 
one should say that the flesh [of Christ] came down from 
heaven, and did not draw its beginning from hence, and from 
us, let him be accursed. For the saying, ( the second man is 
from heaven/ and ' such as is the heavenly, such are they also 
that are heavenly/ and 1 no one hath ascended up into heaven, 
but He who descended from heaven, the Son of man/ and if 
there be any other such, is to be understood as said on account 
of the union with Him who is heavenly ; just as the saying 
that all things were made by Christ, and that Christ dwells 
in your hearts, (is to be understood) not with reference to that 
nature of God which is visible to the eyes, but to that part 
which is conceivable by the understanding ; the two names, 

6 xiii. 8. 



like the two natures, being mingled together, and passing into 
one another by the force of their conjunction/' ^079 
6v/xq>via$.— S. Greg. Naz." Orat. 51, p. 740. 

I have rather quoted these passages with the very object of 
observing upon the marvellous character of that ovfifyvia, or 
union of natures, under which (when, in the course of the 
duration of this world, the fulness of time had arrived for it 
to be accomplished) forthwith the words and sayings which 
belong to the Divine Person are not unfrequently transferred 
to the human nature. The eternal Son of God took man's 
nature upon Him in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her 
substance ; and behold the human nature in Him is at once, 
both by the. sacred Lord and his inspired Apostles, spoken of 
in terms not inappropriate to the divine ! 

Perhaps human thought, like human language, is altogether 
inadequate to pursue the consideration of this marvellous 
union. Certainly the words of Holy Scripture and the Creed 
ought to bound the speculations of men respecting it. But 
do not the very words of Holy Scripture, in the passages 
which I have adduced, invite us, as it were, to these reflections, 
and set us upon considering some of the mysteries of this great 
doctrine ? 

We commonly recognize the two ideas of time and eternity 
as dissimilar to one another. We speak of time, as having 
had a beginning, and destined to have an end; and we con- 
ceive of duration, altogether, as if it were not a necessary 
condition in the existence of things, but for the purposes of 
God in the government of the world, drawn out, as it were, 
and evolved, or, in some manner, created where it was not. 
Thus we not unfrequently talk of " time being no more and, 
though neither human words nor thoughts can penetrate 
either before or after time, or think or speak of eternity other- 
wise than by using the very instruments of thought and 
speech which belong exclusively to a state of duration, and 
are formed and framed under it, yet we do keep fast hold of 
the idea of an eternity, bounding time at either end, and dis- 
tinct altogether in kind from any duration however long. A 
duration which never did begin, and never will end, appears 
impossible and inconceivable to our thought, and seems to 
drive us at once, and of itself, to the idea that eternity, what- 
ever it be, in which, and of which, is God, is wholly diverse 
and unlike to all duration or succession, — such as we call time. 



APPENDIX. 



245 



If, then, this be the true exposition of our common thoughts 
of time and eternity, how shall not that doctrine be inherently 
mysterious, which declares the union into one Person of Him 
who is for ever and ever, who is with no gradations or succes- 
sions, no beginnings nor endings of being, and the seed of the 
woman, the Son of David, the promised child of Abraham, 
living amid all the conditions which belong to and surround 
this transitory world, a being of time, born, when time was 
already, as it were, old, and after a few years departing hence, 
and being no more seen in the body ? How shall we not 
expect, that when this sacred Person, thus mysteriously and 
indissolubly joined of natures so diverse, is spoken of, when 
the very instruments of thought and speech are all such as I 
have described them, and when the occasion is one which has 
reference to matters of comparative time or eternity, that 
language may be applied to the eternal Son of Grod, which 
may seem to identify Him too nearly with the race of men, 
and phrases be used of the Son of Man, in which it may 
appear to be forgotten that He was born, at a certain date in 
the history of the world, the child of a blessed Virgin ? And 
how, indeed, might not our thoughts be rather withdrawn, in 
some degree, from appreciating the unspeakable and sacred 
mystery of this holy doctrine, if it were otherwise ? 

Thus, then, I would venture to interpret this great text, in 
respect of its first statement, 6 xata,3as ex tov ovpavov, 6 vL6$ iov 
uvd&nov. The name of the Son of Man is given (?9 fcoy® tvjs 
'Zvptyviai) to Him who is both G od and man, who, in the unity 
of his sacred Person, is truly one, and one only. And the 
particular title of Son of Man is given in this place, partly, 
(as the context of the discourse seems to suggest,) in order to 
show to Nicodemus that poor and ignorant and merely human 
as the speaker seems, He is yet the only person who can 
speak of things heavenly, as He who knows, and has seen 
them ; and, partly, according to our present interpretation, to 
put the Church for ever in mind of the unspeakable mystery 
of the sacred doctrine of the Incarnation, whereby the Son of 
Man, born in time, is united into one Person with Him, who 
is for ever and ever the eternal Son of G-od. 

V. Having, then, thus offered an interpretation of the words 
6 xata($a$ ix tov ovgavov, as applied to the Son of Man, I pro- 
ceed to consider the other statement of the same verse, 6 vlbs 
tov av9gu>7tov, o wv ip ro ovgavq. As, in that former clause, the 

21* 



Son of Man seemed to be spoken of as if He were independent 
of the laws of time, so (as I before remarked) this clause 
appears to speak of Him as independent of the laws of space. 
How it is obvious to ask, could He, who had a true body, 
with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection 
of man's nature, be said to be in heaven, even whilst He was 
visibly present, and speaking upon earth ? And if such a 
saying be intelligible in respect of his Divine nature, so that 
we should not be surprised to find it said of the Son of God, 
how is it to be understood when spoken, as it expressly is, of 
the Son of Man ? 

It appears to me, that a parallel interpretation to that 
which was offered in the former case, will go far towards 
explaining, or at least accounting for, the use of the appella- 
tion in the present one. The mystery of the union of the 
two natures in one true and single Person, as it necessarily 
produces insurmountable difficulties to our thought in respect 
of time, seems to have precisely the same effect in respect of 
place. 

Let it be observed, then, that we possess no word nor idea 
which bears to space the same relation as eternity to time. 

In speaking of the Divine Being, as we call Him Eternal, 
in contra-distinction to beings who live in time, we have no 
other attribute but Omnipresence to apply to Him in contra- 
distinction to beings who live in space. It is obvious, I think, 
that to say of God that He is omnipresent, is to say what is 
indeed unquestionably true, but what is quite inadequate even 
to such conceptions as we might form of Him in this regard. 

Omnipresence falls altogether short of a Being whose exist- 
ence is necessary. Just as omni-temporal would fall far short 
of eternal, and yet be undeniably true of God ; so omnipresent 
is an equally inadequate expression of that which we believe, 
and, in a certain way, can conceive of Him. 

Not, then, to dwell any longer on these abstruse matters, 
I merely wish to observe, that we ought to conceive of God, 
not only as a Being who is necessarily everywhere, i. e. being 
omnipresent, but as one to whose Being the thought of where 
is not incident at all. His Being is independent of space ; 
perhaps, for we know but little of such things, it may tran- 
scend and surpass it infinitely, as it assuredly permeates and 
fills it. 

If then the nature of God be thus mysteriously exempt 



APPENDIX. 



247 



from every property and condition of space, how shall not 
that doctrine be inherently mysterious, which declares the 
close and indissoluble union, in one Person, of this nature with 
the nature of a man ? How shall we venture to say or think 
what may or may not be the effects of such an union upon 
the sacred manhood ? Above all, how shall we be surprised, 
if, when our blessed Lord and his inspired Apostles speak of 
this mysteriously united manhood, (and the context introduces 
the idea of place,) they use expressions which surpass the 
simple and ordinary things which may be said of common 
men ? 

Thus, then, I would venture to interpret this difficult 
saying. The Son of Man is said to be in heaven even whilst 
on earth, because He, who is both Grod and man, whose 
Person, though combined of these two most dissimilar natures, 
is absolutely and indissolubly One, is assuredly in both. And 
the title of Son of Man seems to be given to Him in this 
place, partly, (according to the context,) in order to show to 
Nicodemus the extraordinary dignity and greatness even of 
that lowly and humble Son of Man, with whom he was speak- 
ing; and partly, (according to our present interpretation,) in 
order to remind the Church, in every age, of the mysterious 
and unsearchable nature of that sacred union, of &od and 
man, under which, and because of which, even the descendant 
of human kind, the child of time and space, appears to have, 
in some sort, put off the conditions of his natural being, and 
to be spoken of as Divine. 

I trust it is not necessary to guard myself any further 
against the danger of being understood to maintain either the 
doctrine of the pre-existence, or present independency of 
space, of the manhood of our blessed Lord. I am very far 
indeed from designing any such thing. What I purpose to 
say, is almost wholly said in the following words of St. 
Augustine : " What, then, doth He mean, when He saith, 
' When ye shall see the Son of Man ascending where he was 
before V There would have been no question, if He had said, 
When ye shall see the Son of G-od ascending where he was 
before ; but when He saith, ' the Son of Man ascending where 
He was before/ was then the Son of Man before in heaven, 
when He begaii to be on earth ? In another place He saith, 
' No one hath ascended into heaven, except Him who descended 
from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.' He was 



248 



APPENDIX. 



speaking upon the earth, and He said that He was in heaven. 
What does this mean, but that we should understand, that 
Christ, who is God and man, is one person, and not two ? 
Christ then is One. The word, the soul, and the flesh are 
one Christ. The Son of G-od and Son of Man are one Christ. 
Jhe Son of God ever, the Son of Man in time, but one Christ 
in unity of person. He was in heaven when He was speaking 
on the earth. The Son of Man was in heaven, as the Son of 
God was on earth ; the Son of God on earth in his assumed 
flesh, the Son of Man in heaven in unity of persons/' S. Aug. 
in Joh. Ev. c. 6, tract, xxvii. (Vol. iii. p. 503.) 

This, as another ancient author says, is the manner of the 
exchange ; for each nature lendeth to the other its own pro- 
perties, because of the unity of person, and their mutual cir- 
culation. — Joann. Damascenus, quoted by Hooker, bk. v. c. 
liii. 4. (Vol. ii. p. 294.) 

The Unity of Person is, as these writers thus say, the first 
great lesson which we should learn from such sayings : may 
we not add, that the Mystery of the Unity is the second ? 
We should, I think, be dealing irreverently with this mystery, 
if we ventured into any explanation of it, beyond what Holy 
Scripture and the Church authoritatively sanction ; whether, 
on the one hand, we so exalted the mankind of Christ, " as 
that the majesty of His estate should extinguish the verity of 
His nature," or so claimed to limit or explain the properties 
of the divinely assumed manhood, as to deny what the Sacred 
Scriptures seem to say expressly of it. I do not feel quite 
sure whether the decisions of Hooker, in his discussion of this 
subject, do not go somewhat further than such prudent reve- 
rence would sanction. (Eccl. Polity, bk. v. c. Ii — lv.) 

But, however this may be, the mystery of this great doc- 
trine may well make our sayings wary, and few about it, lest, 
as Hooker says in the same place, we be like those who, 
" because this Divine mystery is more true than plain, having 
framed the same to their own conceits and fancies, are found 
in their expositions thereof more plain than true/' (Vol. ii. 
p. 284.) 

The sayings which I have been endeavouring to interpret 
were all spoken of our blessed Lord whilst He was yet living 
in the flesh upon the earth. Sanctified, and sent into the 
world for the great work which He had to do, the Son of 
Man was nevertheless one, of whom all these great things 



APPENDIX. 



249 



were true, and many more which are said in the other passages 
which we have not particularly considered. 

But when He had done the work which God had given 
Him to do, and having died in the flesh, and been buried, had 
risen again from the grave, and was about to ascend into 
heaven with His body, the case was in some degree changed. 
For a little while, his followers should not see Him ; in some 
sense, He was about to depart from them : in some manner, 
"the Son of Man," whatever mysterious presence He might 
still maintain among them, was not to be with them as He 
had been, while they had companied with Him as He went 
in and out among them on the earth. 

But before He went, He commissioned His Church to 
occupy the place which He was about to leave, to be the 
visible representative of Himself, the Son of Man. And 
Jesus came and spake unto them, " All power is given unto 
me in heaven and in earth and again, " Peace be unto you ; 
as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." In a few 
days, power from on high was given to them, by the full effu- 
sion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost ; and then the 
Church, her commission and her gifts being full, the Lord 
God dwelling among them, seems to have been clearly placed 
in the same sort of position which her Lord had occupied be- 
fore. She was indeed not Christ, (though, be it observed, 
she is called even by that great name in Holy Scripture, 7 ) but 
she was in some mysterious way, His body, His spouse, His 
temple. 

Like Him, she had the indwelling Spirit; like Him, she 
had an outward human form. Great, and almost infinite, as 
is the difference between the Church and her Lord, yet great 
also, and most astonishing, is the likeness ! 

And as in many other ways, so also in respect of these 
passages of Holy Scripture which I have been considering, 
that which was true of the Son of Man, while He remained 
upon earth, is true also of the Church, which is His body. 

For instance, in the first passage which was referred to, the 
blasphemy against the Son of Man is declared by our Lord 
to be a venial sin in comparison of the blasphemy against the 
Holy Ghost; and the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is 
expressly said by the Evangelist to consist in attributing the 



7 1 Cor. xii. 12. 



250 



ATPENDIX. 



miracles of our Lord to an unclean spirit. If then the pre- 
sence of the eternal Spirit is still with the Church, and shall 
be, to the end of the world, may we not fear lest men may 
sometimes, when they suppose themselves only speaking 
against sons of men, the earthen vessels of God's great gift, 
be rashly blaspheming Him who dwells within them ? And 
may not language, such as that of St. Peter to Ananias, pos- 
sibly apply with slight variation to those who are in various 
ways bold in denying spiritual powers, " Thou hast not blas- 
phemed unto men, but unto God V 

In the second passage before examined, the delegated 
authority of forgiving sins upon the earth, was said to be given 
to the Son of Man. There needs no argument to show, that 
this power was expressly transferred by Himself to his Church. 
" Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you : as my 
Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had 
said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive 
ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are 
remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are 
retained." 

Then we read of His being, as the Son of Man, Lord of the 
Sabbath. It is remarkable, that though He thus claimed the 
title of Lord of the Sabbath, and stated the grounds upon 
which He claimed it, yet, as far as we read, He Himself exer- 
cised no such lordship. The alteration of the day to be 
sacredly observed among the seven, the actual exercise of 
authority over the law, in respect of the way of obeying it, 
was left by Him to his Church. Nor did even the Apostles, 
at any particular stated time, or by special and solemn act of 
authority, make the change. But yet the Church has uni- 
versally made it, and therein laid claim to have inherited, of 
the Son of Man, the Lordship of the Sabbath. 

And again, in respect of the more mysterious attributes of 
the Son of Man, which were stated by St. J ohn, in how many 
points does the condition of Christians and the Church of 
Christ bear a remarkable resemblance to them ! 

Are things said of the Son of Man in which He seems to be 
made independent of time in some sort, as when His sacrifice 
is spoken of, as having been offered from the foundation of 
the world ? How parallel to this, in their degree, are many 
of the sayings of Holy Scripture, respecting the ancient 
Church and its faith in Christ ! When Abraham rejoiced to 



APPENDIX. 251 

see Christ's day, and lie saw it, and was glad ; are we to 
understand only that the Son of God was before Abraham was 
born, and not that Abraham himself, in the omni-temporal 
power of faith, lived, as it were, in the future, and saw the 
day of his Lord's flesh ? For faith is religion's memory and 
hope, all in one, and, like them, witnesseth our divine eternity 
by seizing and gathering up both past and future into its own 
single possession. Faith such as this, making things hoped 
for to be substantial, and regarding things not seen as evident, 
was to all the ancient Church her ground of good report, and 
her mode of pleasing God. The Church believed in Christ, 
and was accepted in the Beloved, ages before He was born in 
Bethlehem, and partook of His blessings, by partaking, in 
some kind, of His Divine attributes. 

In like manner, if the Son of Man be spoken of in Holy 
Scripture, as, in some way, independent of the laws of place, 
being in heaven while He was yet alive and speaking on the 
earth, what shall we say of the many similar things which are 
in many passages of the Epistles said of His Church ? How 
was St. Paul's 7toutsvpa, or citizenship, in heaven ? How 
are Christians already come unto Mount Sion, and unto the 
city of the living God, and to an innumerable company of 
angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, 
which are written in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, to 
the spirits of just men made perfect? How are we raised up 
together with Christ, and made to sit together in heavenly 
places in Him ? What is the mysterious link, independent 
surely of all space, whereby the Church is one body in Christ, 
receiving nourishment from the Head through every joint, 
however widely it be locally separate, and so bound together, 
that, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it ? 
And what again is that real inward communion of the body 
and blood of Christ, whereby, according to the teaching of 
the Church, we are one with Christ, and Christ w^th us, we 
dwell in Christ, and Christ in us, our sinful bodies are made 
clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most 
precious blood, our bodies and souls are preserved unto ever- 
lasting life ? 

There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Do 
not these awful words sum up, as it were, into a short com- 
pass, the mystery of which I am speaking ? A spiritual body I 
what a profound, unfathomable depth ! A body, without 



252 



APPENDIX. 



where, or when ! A body of which we only know, that, being 
a true body, it yet unspeakably transcends every property of 
a body which we know upon the earth ! 

Such, we know, the faithful servants of God are destined 
to be clothed with at last. In that house which Grod has 
built, which is not made with hands, but is eternal in the 
heavens, they will at last be fully what they are now in part, 
and title, as little dependent as the Son of Man Himself on 
the laws of the material universe ; for they shall wake up after 
His likeness, and shall be satisfied with it. 

Page 113. 

On the Pastoral Office. 

All the heads of the argument on the pastoral office will be 
found in the following passages of St. Augustine. 

Christ was the Shepherd even in the time of the Patriarchs : 
" Quotquot ergo illo tempore crediderunt vel Abrahae, vel 
Isaac, vel Jacob, vel Moysi, vel aliis patriarchis, aliisque 
prophetis Christum praenuntiantibus, oves erant, et Christum 
audierunt. Judex fuerat in praecone. — Si per prophetas vox 
pastoris erat, quanto magis vocem pastoris proferebat lingua 
ipsa pastoris!" — In Joh. Evang. c. 10. Tr. xlv. 

He is the Shepherd promised in Ezek. xxxiv. 23. " Quern 
JPastorem unum ? Et pascet eos serous meus David. Jamdu- 
dum Ipse pascebat nos : modo pascit nos servus ejus David. 
Quare tanquam alter ? Nam utique cum ille pascebat, Deus 
pascebat : et cum Deus pascebat, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus 
Sanctus pascebat. Modo excitatur, et fit tanquam alter pastor ; 
sed non alter. Non alter secundum formam Dei ; quia in 
forma Dei, ipse et Pater unus Deus ; in forma autem servi 
tanquam alter excitatur, ut pascat, quia major est Pater." — 
Serm. xlvii. De Ovibus, in Ezek. xxxiv. 

All good shepherds are in the One Shepherd. " Hie invenio 
omnes pastores bonos in Uno Pastore. Non enim vere pas- 
tores boni desunt, sed in uno sunt. Multi sunt, qui divisi 
sunt ; hie unus praedicatur, quia unitas commendatur. Neque 
enim vere modo ideo tacentur pastores, et dicitur pastor, quia 
non invenit Dominus cui commendet oves suas : tunc autem 
ideo commendavit, quia Petrum invenit : imnid vero et in ipso 
Petro unitatem commendavit. Multi erant Apostoli, et uni 
dicitur, Pasce oves meas." 



APPENDIX. 



253 



The commission is founded on love of Christ. " Idem 
ergo ipse pascit, cum ipsi pascunt : et dicit, Ego pasco 5 quia 
in illis vox ipsius, in illis caritas ipsius. — Proinde ut oves 
commendaret, quid ei prius dicit, ne illi tanquam alteri com- 
mendaret? Petre, amas me ? Et respondet, Amo. Et iterum, 
Amas me ? Et respondit, Amo. Et tertio, Amas me ? Et 
respondit, Amo. Confirm at caritatem, ut consolidet unitatem. 
Ipse ergo pascit unus in his, et hi in uno : et tacetur de pasto- 
ribus ; sed non tacetur. Gloriantur pastores ; sed qui glori- 
atur, in Domino glorietur. Hoc est Christo paseere, hoc est 
in Christo paseere, et cum Christo paseere, praeter Christum 
sibi non pascere." — Serm. xlvi. De Pastoribus, in Ezek. 
xxxiv. 

Page 155. 

On Baptism in the Name of the Lord. 

There cannot be any reasonable doubt that the Baptism in 
the Name of the Lord, or in the Name of Jesus Christ, so 
often mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, (chap. ii. 38 ; 
viii. 16; x. 48; xix. 5,) did not exclude, even if it did not 
expressly include and signify, the form of Baptism, as given 
by our Lord to His Apostles. That it did not exclude it, may 
be argued (i.) from the fact, that in the four passages quoted 
above, it is not necessary to suppose that the actual words used 
in holy Baptism are intended to be referred to at all. St. 
Peter in the first passage, and the Historian in the other three, 
may be understood merely to be speaking of being baptized 
in the regular way, the way ordained by Christ, according to 
an interpretation quoted by Bingham, (book xi. c. iii. § 3.) 
(ii.) It would also be quite inconceivable that the Apostles 
should instantly and constantly depart from a form so recently 
and solemnly given to them by their Divine Master, (iii.) 
Besides which, the fact that the Church did always and every 
where, according to the unvarying testimony of the Fathers, 
consider all baptisms invalid which were not administered in 
the Name of the Trinity, strongly confirms the opinion that 
we must interpret the expressions of the Acts in some way 
consistent with the use of the full form as instituted by our 
Lord. — But there seems every reason to interpret these ex- 
pressions in a deeper way, as is done in the body of the Sermon ; 
22 



254 



APPENDIX. 



that is, to understand " the Name of the Lord," " the Name 
of Jesus Christ," as containing within it the Name of the 
whole blessed Trinity ; so that when St. Peter or St. Luke 
speaks of persons being baptized into the Name of Christ, he 
may probably mean by that Name, the whole Name of the 
Three Persons. This is, unquestionably, the manner in which 
St. Basil interprets these expressions. — S. Basil, de Sp. Sancto, 
c. xii. 

And St. Ambrose, in a remarkable passage, which has been 
variously interpreted, (vide not. Benedict, edit, ad locum, 
Bingham's Antiq. book xi. c. iii. § 3,) following St. Basil, 
uses similar language : " Sicut qui benedicitur in Christo bene- 
dicitur in Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, quia 
unum nomen, potestas una; ita etiam ubi operatio aliqua 
divina, aut Patris, aut Filii, aut Spiritus designatur, non solum 
ad Sanctum Spiritum, sed etiam ad Patrem refertur et Filium ; 
nec solum ad Patrem, sed etiam ad Filium refertur et Spiritum. 
Denique .ZEthiops eunuchus Candacis reginae baptizatus in 
Christo plenum mysterium consecutus est. — Cum dicitur ' In 
Nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi/ per unitatem nominis 
impletum mysterium est. — Qui unum dixerit, Trinitatem sig- 
navit. Si Christum dicas, et Deum Patrem a quo unctus est 
Filius, et Ipsum qui unctus est, et Spiritum Sanctum quo 
unctus est, designasti." — S. Ambros. de Sp. Sancto, lib. i. c. 
iii. Cf. also S. Cyprian. Ep. ad Jubaianum, lxxiii. (p. 206, 
ed. Fell.) 

Also see Theophylact. Comm. in S. Luc. xxiv. 

But the case narrated by St. Luke, in the nineteenth chapter 
of the Acts, seems to make the matter quite clear. When 
St. Paul found that the converts baptized by Apollos, during 
his absence from Ephesus, had not so much as heard whether 
there be any Holy Ghost, he asks, Els ti ovv ifiaTttioOqts ? as 
though he said, How is it possible for you to have been 
baptized, and not have heard of the Holy Ghost, into ivhose 
Name ye must have been baptized ? Into what name, then, 
were ye baptized ? When they explained that they had only 
received the baptism of John, he baptized them "in the 
Name of the Lord Jesus." Thus it is plain, that they who 
were baptized "in the Name of the Lord Jesus," must have 
heard of the Holy Ghost, and have been able to answer, 



APPENDIX. 



255 



Page 161. 

The Baptismal Form the Sum of Creeds. 

I have spoken in the text of the Baptismal Form as being 
the germ or summary of all Christian doctrine ; as being the 
only doctrine delivered by our Lord (and that in summary) in 
the great forty days ; and as being the ground-work and origin 
of all dogmatic teaching in the Church, and specifically of the 
Apostles' Creed. This view will be seen to be highly probable, 
if we remember : — 

1. That a certain profession of faith was always required 
before holy baptism. (Acts viii. 37. 1 Tim. vi. 12, 20. 
2 Tim. i. 13.; and 1 Pet. iii. 21. " irtsp^ua " &c. " the inter- 
rogative trial of," &c. : Hooker.) 

2. That^this faith was of course the same (at least in sum) 
which the catechumen had been taught, and into which he 
was to be baptized. 

3. That the universal practice of the Church was to baptize 
into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Grhost, and that, therefore, it is probable that this was the 
profession also. (Vide note, p. 253. Bingham's Antiq. bk. 
xi. c. iii. § 1.) u Formula, qua primitus ad baptismum 
venientes fidem suam de SS. Trinitate profitebantur, simplex 
erat, atque his fere verbis concepta, Credo in Deum Patrem, 
Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum. Hsec est passiva doctissimorum 
hodie theologorum sententia." — Bull. Jiidic Eccl. Cath. c. 
vi. 19. 

4. That as soon as we knew of the Apostles' Creed at all, 
we knew of it as the form of faith required to be professed at 
holy baptism. (King on the Creed, c. 1, p. 37. Bingham's 
Antiq. b. xi. c. vii. § 8.) 

5. That this Creed is principally, or (as it may truly be 
said) wholly, an expansion of the doctrine of the Holy 
Trinity, which doctrine the Church has always regarded as the 
sum of Catholic Truth. 

The following passages, from some of the earliest Fathers, 
will tend to illustrate these positions. 

St. Clement of Rome : tXOvouev irti tov svx%£?i xai atpvhv tyj$ ayJaj 
xXrjdtcos yj^iuiv xavova — Ad Cor. i. p. 32. ed. Jacobson. 

(This phrase, common with the Greek Fathers, is much illus- 



256 



APPENDIX. 



trated by the words of St. Irenseus, who often alludes to and 
adopts expressions from St. Clement, xavbva trjs a^fotas ax%ivr] — 
ov 8id paretics pat oc fitytpe, contra Hser. bk. i. c. ix.) 

S. Ignatius: ~Zriov8d^Bts ovy fie>3aiio9r]vai ip toic 8byfxa6iv tov 
Kt-^tou xal tW drtoatoXuv (Iva itdvta oaa 7totyjts, xatevoSuOrjts aapxi 
xai 7tvsvfiati, rtiatn xal dydrty) ip Ttcp, xai Ilatgl, xal livevjxati, iv 
agxy xai iv ti%sv. — Ad Magn. xiii. 

S. Irenaeus, having spoken just before of the xavuv dx%ivr]c ttji 
d^foc'aj 8vd paritiG^atoc siKrjfifibvo^ goes on to say: 

C H ixhv ydg Exx%.r,OLa, xantt^ xad 1 ohr/c tyjc oixovfievrji ecos rtegdtcop 
trjc yrjc disonagfievq, rta^d 8k tCjv drcoatokcovy xal t^v ixtivav /xadr/tuiv 
rtagaKaPovaa try sis sva ®sbv, rtatiga rtavtox^dtopa, top 7tf7toit]x6ta 
tov ov^avbv, xal try yjjv, xal tdc dakdnaa^ xal rtdvta td iv avtoic, 
Ttiatw Kal ft j tia Xgiatov 'Itjaovv, tov vlbv tov Qeov, tov aa^xu>divra 
vrtep tr\c jjustigof Gutrjgiae' xal sic. Uvevpa "Ayiov, to 8id fuiv 
rtgotyqtuiV xexr}gv%6$ tdc Oixovo/xiac, xal tdc iXsv6£ic,xal try ix UagOivov 
yhvqGtv, xal to Ilddoc, x> t. "k. 

tovto to xrgvyfxa rtagsihrjtyvia, xal tavtry try rilativ, wj rtgosfya/xsv, 
7j 'Exxhqaia, xairtsp iv tq xb<5p.($ Ststfrfagjui*^, irii^'kioc yvkdoaei, 

iva olxov oixovaa. Adv. Hser. bk. i. c. x. 

S. Justin Martyr: ^Ocsoi av TtiMSduiot, xal rLiti'tevtooiv dhrjOr] tavta 
td x><j>' r t iiu>v 8i8a6x6/xsva xa : , teyo/xsva sivai, xal j3tow ovtioc. 8vvaa6ai 
vTtM5XvZ>vtai sv%sadal ts xal aittiv vrjatEvovtsc rfapd tov ©foi t<Zv 
7igo7]iAagtrjiJ.£vu)v dfysciLV 8i8doxovtai, qfiuiv Gvvevxoy.ivu>v xai avvvrjatsv- 
ovtuv avtoic, srtcita dyovtai vty' r}/jitov evda v8u>g ictl, xai tCpiiov 
dvayevvrfieac, ov xal ?)/xhc avtoi avsyswrfirj/xsv avayevvuivtai. 'Ert' 
ovbfiatoc ydg tov Ilatgbc tCjv o"ktovi xal 8e07t6tov Qsov, xal tov ^atr^oe 
yj^Cjp 'liqGov X^ct'otj xal TLvsv/^atoc 'Aylov, 7fb iv tq v8att tots "kov- 

tgbv rtoiovvtav. 'ErCovo/xd^s tat tq i%o[xivq> dvaysvvrjOryai,, xal 

fX£tavor t Gavti irtl tolc rifxa^tr^itvoic, to tov Tlat^bc t<Zv o%u>v xal 8so7to- 
tov ©foiS bvopa. avtb tovto (jlovov iiti%£yovts^ tovtov Xovabfisvov 
dyovts$ iiti to kovt^ov. v Qvo/xa yag ta dpp/jT'9 ©59 ov8sis t^ft si-Ttsiv. 

8i tic, to%/AY]0£isv slvat teysiv, ixi/jirjVE tr\v doatov fiavtav. Kateitao 
8e tovto to "kovtpbv ^cotiG/xbc, £>c fyvdtt^oixiviov try 8idJvoiav tZzv tavta 
(xavdavovtiov. xai irt' ovofxatoc 8s 'liqaov Xptcrrou tov otavpcodiitoc S7ti 
Tlovtlov YlCkdtov* xal irt' dvoixatoc Tlvsv/xatos c Aytou, o 81a twv rtpo- 
tyrjt-Zv n^bexy C,v%s td xatd tbv 'I^couv rtdvta, b ^>u>ti^6fX£vo{ kovsrat. 
— Apol. i. p! 78, 80. 

Tertullian having, in the thirteenth chapter of the book de 
Praescriptione Haereticorum, given the Eegula Fidei, or an 
account of the Christian faith, in which he speaks of the per- 
sons and offices of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the 
nineteenth and twentieth chapters speaks as follows : — " Ergo 
non ad Scripturas provocandum est ; nec in his constituendum 
certamen, in quibus aut nulla, aut incerta victoria est, aut par 
incertae. Nam etsi non ita evaderet collatio Scripturarum ; ut 



APPENDIX. 



257 



utramque partem parem sisteret, ordo rerum desiderabat, illud 
prius proponi, quod nunc solum disputandum est. Quibus 
competat fides ipsa? Cujus sint Scripturae? A quo, et per 
quos, et quando, et quibus sit tradita disciplina, qua fiunt 
Christiani ? Ubi enim apparuerit esse veritatem et disciplines 
et fidei Christianas, illic erit Veritas Scripturarum, et exposi- 
tionum, et omnium traditionum Christianarum. 

a Christus Jesus Dominus noster — quid esset, quid fuisset, 
quam Patris voluntatem administraret, quid homini agendum 
determinaret, quamdiu in terris agebat, ipse pronunciabat sive 
populo palam, sive diseentibus seorsum : ex quibus duodecim 
prascipuos lateri suo adlegerat, destinatos nationibus magistros. 
Itaque uno eorum decusso, reliquos undecim digrediens ad 
Patrem post resurrectionem jussit ire et docere nationes, in- 
tinguendas in Patrem, et in Filium, et in Spiritum Sanctum. 
Statim igitur Apostoli — consecuti promissam vim Spiritus 
Sancti ad virtutes et eloquium — in orbem profecti eandem 
doctrinam ejusdem fidei nationibus promulgaverunt : et pro- 
inde ecclesias apud unamquamque civitatem condiderunt : a 
quibus traducem fidei, et semina doctrinae caeterae exinde 
ecclesiae mutuatas sunt, et quotidie mutuantur, ut ecclesias 
fiant." 

I trust I need not guard myself against being understood 
to mean that the other great verities of the Christian Faith 
were untaught by the Apostles, or not required to be believed 
by the early converts. I only iutend to trace, as matter of 
historical probability and truth, the Apostles' Creed, and 
thereby the whole fabric of dogmatic teaching in the Church, 
to the Baptismal Form as delivered by our Lord to his Apos- 
tles, which very thing is done by Tertullian in the last-cited 
passage. 

It is not necessary for my argument, that the Apostles, 
even at the baptism of the three thousand on the day of Pen- 
tecost, should have been satisfied with so short a Creed as that 
stated by Episcopius, and admitted by Bishop Bull : " Credo 
in Deum Patrem, Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum." On the 
contrary, the more and the sooner they enlarged the original 
summary of dogmatic truth, by the aid of the Holy Ghost 
received on the day of Pentecost, the more clearly will appear 
both the richness of the original tradition, and the fulness of 
the authority to understand and expound it with which they 
knew themselves to be now endowed. Vide Bishop Bull, 
22* 



258 



APPENDIX. 



Judic. Eccl. Cathol. iv. et seq. with the Notes of Dr. Grabe ; 
Grotius's learned note on St. Matt, xxviii. 19 ; and particu- 
larly Bishop Pearson on the Creed, ii. 6, note d. 

Page 175. 
On the Nature of Faith. 

In examining the nature of faith it appears to me to be a 
matter of no little importance to remark, and keep steadily in 
mind, the different way in which it is spoken of in the Gos- 
pels and in the Epistles. Throughout the Gospels, the word 
and its conjugates are used in a simple, uncontroversial way. 
Men believe, 8 or they do not believe. They have faith, or 
they have not faith. The Lord observes and blesses their 
faith or belief, or He reproves and laments their want of it. 
Every thing relating to faith or belief, or to believing, is said 
in a simple, intelligible way, and no controversy could well 
arise (if the Gospels existed alone, or if they could be inter- 
preted without reference to the other Scriptures of the New 
Testament) as to the meaning of the terms. 

For instance, when Nathaniel " believed" because the Lord 
had seen him under the fig-tree, — when the disciples are said 
to have " believed the Scriptures, and the word which Jesus 
had said," — when the Lord, reproving the Jews to Nicodemus, 
told him, " If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe 
not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?" it 
would seem as if all these expressions were very simple and 
easy, regarded by themselves. Our Lord seems to be speak- 
ing of "believing;" and everybody knows, without meta- 
physical discussion or distinction, what believing is. Some 
matter or other is told to a man, or otherwise proposed to his 
mind, and he either believes it, or he does not. Again, when 
in other places the Lord attributes faith to various persons, 
whose particular states of mind, as exhibited by their actions, 
are somewhat fully opened to our investigation, (as in the case 
of the poor woman with the issue of blood, the bearers of the 

8 It is remarkable that the substantive 7ti'cfti$ does not occur in St. 
John : the verb rti6t£vu> occurs in his Gospel nearly three times as often 
as in all the other Gospels together. We, meanwhile, in English, incur 
some inconvenience from having no verb at all of the same root as faith ; 
so that " faith," the substantive, gets a sort of meaning more or less dis- 
similar to that of the verb " to believe." 



APPENDIX. 



259 



paralytic, the woman of Canaan, and others,) — although the 
words " faith" and " believing" seem to be used (according to 
the ordinary practice of human language) in an extended 9 way, 
so as to cover not their abstract believing only, but also the 
acts which their believing led to, — yet still the usage of the 
terms is simple, natural, and without difficulty ; so that, as I 
just observed, if these uses stood alone, or if the written Scrip- 
tures were limited to the four Gospels, there would seem to 
be little or no room for serious diversity of opinion respecting 
the nature of faith or believing. 

It would then seem ; as I have said in the text, as if faith or 
believing were used by our Lord in two very naturally con- 
nected ways ; first, simply for believing ; and secondly, for 
believing with action. And it might be added, that this latter 
more complicated sort of faith is capable of slight varieties, 
according to the relation or proportion of strength which its 
parts bear to one another, as is illustrated in the case of the 
father of the demoniac boy, in whom action as if believing, 
action on imperfect belief, receives the blessing of faith. 

Such, I say, is the case with the use of the words ' faith' and 
'believing' in the Gospels. In the Epistles it is otherwise. 
From the very opening of the Epistle to the Homans, the 
word " faith" obtains a technical use. It is used in contra- 
distinction. And henceforward it is involved in difficulty 
and obscurity, and that obscurity is unfortunately allowed to 
embarrass the simpler and directer statements of our Lord, as 
contained in the four Gospels. 

In the Gospels, the only distinction taken is between belief 
and unbelief. The Canaanitish mother, the poor woman with 
the issue of blood, believe ; the Pharisees and Scribes believe 
not ; and we read of nothing more subtle or metaphysical than 
this. The difference is a difference between people. Believing 
may, as used in one passage, cover more of a man's mind 
and actions, and in another may be confined to something 
more exact and particular in him ; but either way, it is not 

9 I observe, thirdly, that (as it is ordinary in like cases concerning the 
use of words) the word belief is by a kind of synecdoche (or metonymy if 
you pleasel so commonly extended in signification, as, together with such 
a persuasion as we spoke of, to imply whatever by a kind of necessit}^ 
natural or moral, doth result from it: so comprehending those acts of 
will, those affections of soul, and those deeds which may be presumed 
consequent upon such a persuasion.— Dr. Barrow, Serm. IV. of Justifying 
Faith. 



260 



APPENDIX. 



contradistinguished from any thing else in him; it is his 
Christian goodness, larger or smaller, vaguer or exacter, as the 
case may be ; and it distinguishes him from those who do not 
possess it. 

There are three portions of the epistolary Scriptures in which 
the technical and contradistinguished use of " faith ,; must 
be considered, in order to come to a clear understanding of 
the Scriptural meaning of this most important word ; and I do 
not scruple to declare my conviction, that the two meanings 
already attributed to it, as it occurs in the Gospels, will be 
found to be its proper doctrinal meanings in the Epistles also ; 
and that the passages, in which other things seem to be said 
of it, will appear on examination to refer to other subjects, 
and to be improperly applied to elucidate the nature of that 
Christian goodness of faith which is made by our Lord the 
title of baptism, and with baptism, of salvation. 

These three portions of the epistolary Scriptures are, 1. 
that part of the Epistle to the Romans, in which faith is 
distinguished from works : 2. those passages scattered in 
different parts of the Epistles, in which faith is distinguished 
(not contradistinguished doctrinally, as though any great or 
important doctrinal point were involved in the contradistinction, 
but simply, separately spoken of,) from love, or charity ; such 
are principally the passages 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Gal. v. 6 : 3. 
the passage of St. James's Epistle, in which he contradis- 
tinguishes faith from works. 

In these three parts of the Scripture, the word ' faith' appears 
to be used differently. 

In the first, it seems to be used, not for any thing in a man, 
at all. But whereas ' works' stand for the J ewish system of 
religion, the system under which salvation is regarded as a 
thing capable of being purchased or earned. Faith seems to 
stand for that other system whereby salvation is regarded as 
a gift of God, obtained for us who believe through the sacri- 
fice of the death of Christ. Even believing would fall under 
the condemnation of a law of works, as explained in the 
Epistle to the Romans, if it thought to earn salvation of its 
own proper goodness ; and, on the other hand, any deeds of 
goodness would seem to lie within the scope of the law of 
faith, if they were done as part of the devotion of body and 



APPENDIX. 



261 



soul, due from those who thankfully acknowledge, that all 
they have and hope for, is the free and undeserved gift of God 
in Christ. 

In the second set of passages, faith, and love, or charity, are 
distinguished from one another, but not in such a manner as to 
indicate any superiority of acceptableness with God in faith 
over love or charity. On the contrary, of the two, St. Paul 
says charity is the greater. Faith seems to be belief; and 
love or charity, the whole set of virtuous and godly feelings 
and deeds, which are proper to Christian belief, and ought to 
arise from it. 

In the third passage, faith unquestionably seems mere 
abstract intellectual belief ; and works signify, as in the last 
case, the whole of the moral acts, inward and outward, which 
form the Christian energies of that belief. 

But in order to render the whole of this subject more clear, 
it seems to be necessary to enter to some extent into the 
theory of moral virtue. Much of the confusion and apparent 
disagreement which exists among theologians on the subject 
of faith, is, I am convinced, not so properly a theological 
difference as a philosophical obscurity. They are not differing 
really in the value that they are respectively setting upon one • 
and the same thing, but they are talking of separate things, 
and seeming to differ, when, in fact, they are more agreed than 
they suppose. 

Let it be first observed, however, that every person who 
speaks of faith and works in a man as distinguishable things, 
and, still more, every person who speaks of them as of different 
acceptableness in the eyes of God, and as holding a different 
place in the work of man's salvation, is really maintaining 
some theory or other of moral virtue. He may perhaps have 
represented his theory to his own mind very indistinctly, or 
possibly not at all ; but still he has a theory. Faith is not 
works, to his mind ; whatever it be, and possibly he is very 
little able to explain what it is, it is certainly different from 
works; and works are not faith. The two things differ; 
perhaps, he thinks, essentially ; certainly intelligibly, and 
certainly importantly. But in that he thinks them different 
at all, he has a theory — some theory or other, in which 
they occupy different places, have different scopes and duties, 
and, possibly, different values. 



262 



APPENDIX. 



There appear to be two principal theories of virtue ; from 
the clear and separate understanding of which, much of the 
embarrassment of the subject of faith, as it appears to me, 
may be removed. 

I. The nature of one of these theories may be gathered 
from the following observations. 

We are born with various moral capacities. By saying 
this, I mean that there are within us, by nature, various dis- 
tinguishable powers, each one of which is capable of acting 
under its own peculiar circumstances, and in its own peculiar 
way, each one of which is capable of acting rightly or wrongly, 
and, according as it acts rightly or wrongly, of affecting or 
altering the character of a man for moral good or evil. 

These capacities, moral because of their effect upon our 
characters, are in themselves capacities of feeling, capacities 
, of being moved in the way of pleasure or pain. — Arist. Eth. 
Nicom. bk. ii. Thus we are naturally capable of a feeling of 
the particular kind called ' fear,' — of another, easily distin- 
guishable from it, called i anger,' — and of many others. 

Each of these is distinguishable from others, partly by 
being different in the sort of emotion it produces, and partly 
by being produced in us by different external circumstances. 
Dangerous circumstances, for instance, being presented to us, 
at once exhibit and develop that natural pain which we know 
by the name of fear ; things lovely awaken love ; things dis- 
pleasing to us, awaken, according to their distinctions, dislike, 
anger, hate, &c. 

How many of these moral capacities there are in us, it is 
impossible to say. We are able to be affected very variously 
by the things which surround us in our life ; our minds reply 
with various kinds of modifications of feeling to a vast variety 
of external things ; and, according as these external things are 
divided according to their kinds, the emotions which they 
excite may be divided and classified also. They may also be 
divided and classified in other ways. 

The moment that a being thus constituted is placed in the 
midst of the world, his capacities of feeling are forthwith soli- 
cited in various and constant ways. No part nor portion of 
his mental constitution, in respect of feelings, is without con- 
tinual exercise. The circumstances by which he is surrounded 
are extremely various, and succeed one another in all manner 



APPENDIX. 



263 



of rapid and multifarious combinations, and they touch and 
agitate those tender places of the soul, so that they are ever 
vibrating with the emotions which belong to them. 

It is plain that mere capacity of feeling is not, of itself, 
morally good or evil. One man may be more likely to become 
good than another, as his natural capacities of feeling lie 
naturally towards better objects, or are better proportioned to 
one another, in relative natural strength, than those of another ; 
but till these capacities are excited, and the man acts upon 
the excitement, nothing moral has taken place in him, nor 
can he be considered to be, morally, either bad or good. 

Nor is there any thing moral in the simple, passive excite- 
ment of feeling There is no more morality in merely 1 being 
afraid/ or < being angry/ than in ' being cold/ or ' being hot/ 

But immediately upon the excitement of feeling, action 
inevitably and instantly ensues. The feeling puts the vessel 
under weigh, as it were, and instantly it has a course or direc- 
tion. Till it moved, it had no moral direction ; till it moved, 
it could not be steered. 

Whatever, then, a man does under the excitement, whether 
he acts on it in the direction which the feeling suggests or no ; 
whether he dwells on the feeling, or puts it aside ; encourages 
or represses it j however he treats or manages it, — he acts. 
He does a moral act. He has pro tanto a character. He has 
taken a step in habit. He is no longer a thing of mere capa- 
cities, but he has begun to be developed into a moral being. 

It is no part of my present purpose to inquire into the 
nature or powers of the " moral faculty, 2 the natural object 
of which is actions," or to consider the standard or law by 
which that faculty is instructed to operate in its government. 
Suffice it, in this regard, to say, that such a power there 
undoubtedly is, having some natural sight of what is right and 
wrong, but itself wanting instruction, and strengthening, both 
from increase of knowledge and steadiness of moral habit. 

Every act, as it passes, leaves a moral colour on the mind. 
Each single act is a step in its particular habit, and an acces- 
sion, in its particular kind, of character. The mind having 
acted, is not where it was before acting. It has done what 
has a moral value j it has deserved praise or blame ; it is better 
or worse than it was \ it has got upon it the beginning of a 

2 Bp. Butler ' On the Nature of Virtue.' 



264 APPENDIX. 

new thing, a self-made character ; it has rendered its subse- 
quent acts more easy in the same direction, more difficult in 
the reverse ; it has gone some way towards settling the ques- 
tion whether it shall be permanently good or bad, permanently 
happy or miserable. 

These acts are very numerous. They are without number. 
Indeed they are often hardly separable into distinct acts, but 
are continuous. Such are cherished feelings, as of love, or 
hate. Many of them, nay, very much the larger number of 
them, are secret and inward. They take place in the inner 
recesses of the heart, and hardly the passing shade or smile 
upon the features marks the inward step which is making 
habit inveterate, and stamping the character. Many exhibit 
themselves in words, which are a most important set of acts, — 
acts which re-act, — acts which are remembered, and so tend 
to produce many more like themselves. 

And some acts are visible and outward. They are seen by 
the agent himself, and they are seen by others. In these 
respects they are very important acts; for they identify the 
growth of habit, and exhibit its gradual strengthening. More- 
over, they are testimonies of what a man is, and means to be. 
They are the shining of His light before men, who see His 
works. They have also some peculiar dangers attending 
them ; for they may sometimes be done in order to be seen, 
and so be in reality acts of a habit entirely different from that 
which they wish to seem to belong to. 

But if the outward acts be genuine, they do not differ in 
any essential respect, as acts, from the inward ones. Each 
are steps in habit ; the outward ones even more realizing, 
decisive steps than the inward ones. Though no doubt many 
a habit grows inveterate, and makes a large portion of a 
character without a single exhibited outward act, yet do many 
genuine outward acts make the growth of habit stronger, 
quicker, and more deliberate and intentional. 

Few things could be conceived more irrational than to sup- 
pose that inward acts are good or acceptable to God, or otherwise 
the conditions of His favour, and outward ones in comparison 
of them vile and odious in His sight. 

If then, upon these principles, we should reply to the ques- 
tion, "What is virtue ? the answer would probably be some- 
thing of this kind. Virtue is the state of mind ensuing upon 
habitual right action in respect of any natural emotion j or if 



APPENDIX. 265 

we were asked how many virtues are there, we should answer, 
As many as there are natural emotions. If every natural 
emotion produces its own acts, and if these acts are habitually 
under the government and control of a rightly ordered reason 
or conscience, then the man has all virtues. 

On this theory of virtue, courage, temperance, modesty, 
charity are virtues. Each is the rightly habitualized capacity 
of emotion on its own subject. 

But is not veracity a virtue ? Is not justice a virtue ? But 
of what natural emotion are they respectively the conscien- 
tiously governed habit? 

Take veracity for instance. 

It is, I think, plain, that veracity is a virtue in a different 
sense of the word from that in which courage and temperance 
are virtues. 

What tempts a man to offend against veracity ? Sometimes, 
no doubt, his shame \ sometimes his desires ) sometimes his 
fears. 

If then his natural emotion of shame were, under the 
habitual government of conscience, become modesty the virtue, 
and his desires, under the same government, temperance, and 
his fears courage, he would be, pro tanto, veracious. 

What sort of virtue, then, is veracity ? Plainly, as I think, 
not a virtue which ranges in the same rank with courage, 
temperance, and modesty; not a habit of a man's mind, but a 
department of his actions ; not so properly an inward thing in 
him, a practical principle, grown under right regulation of 
conscience into a part of his character, as an outward thing, a 
certain class or, as it were, region and division of his deeds. 
Veracity, then, is truth of words j and veracity, spoken of (as 
no doubt it may be) as a virtue in a man, is all those separate 
virtues or parts of virtues combined, which lead a man to use 
truth of words ; it is courage, modesty, temperance, &c, all 
together, in so far forth as these virtues lead to or produce 
truth of words. 

Justice, in like manner, is a virtue in the second sense. 
For what are the desires which lead a man to be unjust ? love 
of money, love of power, other lusts of various kinds. If 
then each one of these is duly governed by conscience, and 
ripened thus into its own habit of virtue, a man is just; and 
that, not because he has won the fresh or further habit of 
justice, but because these separate habitual virtues prevent 

23 



266 



APPENDIX. 



any of his natural desires from leading him to transgress his 
neighbour's right. Justice therefore, like veracity, is a depart- 
ment of a virtuous man's actions rather than a habit in his 
mind; and if justice be ever spoken of as a habit, it will 
signify all those separate and particular habitual virtues com- 
bined which lead a man, in his intercourse with others, to 
observe the laws of fairness and equity. 

If I have in any degree succeeded in making my meaning 
plain, I hope that these two senses or uses of the word ' virtue' 
are distinguished from one another. The former sense is far 
the more accurate, philosophical, and true ; the second is the 
more popular and common. The first is derived from the 
mental view of habits ; the second, from the outer view of 
.actions. The first takes account of the upward growth of 
habits as processes of mental development and formation; the 
second takes, as it were, a horizontal section of the growing 
habits, and maps out the performances of virtue according to 
the departments of human conduct. The first begins by 
examining the emotions which need to be educated, and traces 
up the growth of the virtue through its inward and outward 
activities to its perfection in established habit; the second 
begins by thinking what regions of human conduct need 
virtuous government, and, dividing the virtues according to 
these regions, then speaks of the necessity of these virtues 
springing from true principles and motives within. 

According to the former sense, every personal energy be- 
longing to a particular emotion, from the slightest voluntary 
wish or cherished thought, up to the latest and most perfect 
act of visible virtuous devotion in the same kind, is an act, 
having all the properties, and, in proportion to its perfectness, 
the value of a virtuous act ; the inner and secret ones, not less 
than the outer and visible ones, the outer and visible ones 
(provided, as before distinguished, they be genuine and real 
energies of the same principle) not less than those which are 
inward and secret. 

According to the latter sense, virtue is often a hollow 
thing. Apparent veracity, or apparent justice, is present in 
the outer life of a man, but it does not follow of course that 
he has the inner heart of a veracious or a just man. Real 
inward vice may, by the aid of more than ordinary cunning, 
wear the outward garb of virtue. Therefore, on this view of 
virtue, it becomes necessary to make very strong distinctions 



APPENDIX. 



267 



between what is outward and what is inward. We confuse 
what is, in fact, the uncertainty of the judge of an action with 
imperfect nature in the action itself. What is the inward 
heart ? becomes the question. What is the secret motive ? 
What is the hidden principle ? Visible external deeds being 
felt to be uncertain criteria of character, virtue is said to 
depend upon the motives of deeds ; and there springs up a 
dark and obscure philosophy of motives, which is difficult to 
explain, and not very satisfactory when explained. 

For what is a motive 1 and what do men commonly mean 
when they speak of the motives as giving value to deeds ? 

It is rather difficult to decide, and still more difficult to 
explain clearly. Perhaps if we attempt to analyze the process 
of an act, we shall come to some understanding on the point. 

1. Some external thing suggests itself to one of our natural 
emotions as desirable to be pursued. This is the object of an 
act, its final cause, its ov hsxa. 

# 2. The natural emotion is awakened, and instantly, and 
necessarily, would act with an immediate appetency of the 
object; but that 

3. The moral faculty interposes, and rules whether or no, 
and in what degree, and direction, action is to be permitted. 

This may be taken as an analysis of the first act of a habit. 

But the man's moral constitution is in some degree affected 
by his first act ; and when he comes to his subsequent acts, 
he finds himself in the following state : 

1. The external thing presents itself as before. 

2. The emotion is no longer purely natural. There is the 
beginning of something acquired or artificial combined with 
it. The simple natural excitement is weaker than at first, 
but there is a complicated condition of mind in the place of it, 
of which one part is the remains of the natural emotion, and 
the other is the moral, semi-habitual result of previous action. 

3. The moral faculty is also becoming habitual; strength- 
ening, if so be, in exercising true and virtuous government, or 
else beginning to have its powers crippled, and to fall under 
the dominion of the emotions. 

What then is a motive, as men commonly speak of it ? 

If the above analysis be in any respect just and true, it 
must be, 1, the object ; 2, the natural emotion ; 3, some 
energy of the moral faculty, original or habitual; 4, the 
complex activity of mind rising out of the remains of natural 



268 



APPENDIX. 



emotion, and the effect of habit together ; or, 5, the ei*$, or 
mental condition ensuing upon habit, by itself. 

Now I think that when persons speak of motives giving 
value to deeds, they mean either the first or the fourth of 
these senses ; so as by the word motive to signify either the 
object or the complex activity of mind rising from the remains 
of natural emotion, and the habitual result of previous acts. 

When by the motive, they really mean the object, it is plain, 
first, that they are using words improperly; and secondly, 
that the object, though very important in identifying the real 
character of a deed by exhibiting its intended direction, cannot 
in any possible way impart value to it, or give it a moral 
worth which it does not possess already. When, again, by 
the motive, men mean the complex internal activity just de- 
scribed, it is to be remembered, that the natural portion of it 
is not moral, because not voluntary. There remains, there- 
fore, as the moral motive, properly so called, only the inward 
activity of that state of mind which is the result of previous^ 
acts. 

Thus, then, it seems that motives are but acts of dispositions 
which themselves result from former acts, after all. Instead 
of imparting value to other acts, they are, metaphysically, of 
the same nature with them ; energies of the same moral man, 
like steps in the direction of confirmed and inveterate cha- 
racter. They impart no value. They are valuable, as being 
real and moral; and the deeds, supposed real, are not less 
valuable than they. 

Now, I am very far from wishing to object to what I have 
called the second theory of virtue. The expressions which 
belong to it, are so many, and so deeply entwined with current 
language, that it would be quite impossible to discard or 
banish it. 

But I wish to observe, that the way in which faith is com- 
monly spoken of, and the way in which St. Paul's distinction 
between faith and works, as made in the Epistle to the 
Bo mans, is commonly interpreted to be a distinction between 
two things in man, — the one of an inward, and the other of 
an outward quality, — are both entirely due to this latter and 
less philosophical theory of moral virtue. 

Deeds being, according to this moral theory, outward things, 
of no positive character and value of their own, but dependent 
(not so much for the settlement of their own real character 



APPENDIX. 



269 



and value, as for character and value altogether,) upon inward 
motives, seem to fall in very naturally with the sort of way 
in which the Apostle speaks of works. Motives again, being, 
according to the same theory, inward things, which impart all 
value to the outward deeds, seem to offer a standing place for 
an imaginary faith, which, being not identical with belief, but 
itself moral, nor yet being virtue or any part of virtue, is 
spoken of as a fiduciary principle, or state of mind, inter- 
mediate between belief and virtues, giving to virtues their 
goodness and acceptableness in the sight of God. 

I do not mean that I am aware of any person having ever 
actually thus drawn out a supposed parallel between motives 
and deeds, on the one hand, and St. Paul's faith and works 
on the other ; but that these two ways of speaking are very 
near akin to one another, and both are due to the same funda- 
mental theory of moral metaphysics. 

If, then, the whole theory which, regarding virtue in respect 
of its visible outward manifestations, makes these strong dis- 
tinctions between the inward and outward activities of the 
moral mind, be itself hardly philosophically tenable, the 
parallel theory which speaks of works (meaning by works 
Christian deeds) as vile and worthless, as filthy rags, &c, in 
the eyes of G-od, and faith (meaning by faith an inward moral 
fiduciary principle, considered as the basis of virtue) as alone 
of any value in his sight, would seem to be equally ques- 
tionable. 

Nor questionable only ) it also seems to be both morally 
and theologically dangerous : for it not only confounds and 
disarranges the real relative values of the inward and outward 
activities of virtue ; but while it denies their due value to the 
outward ones, it magnifies the inward ones to the extent of 
making them liable to the very condemnation of the law of 
works which St. Paul writes against. 

Indeed, I feel sure that the fiduciary theory, so to call it, 
is, in fact, however little its supporters may intend it, or 
suppose it, essentially a theory of works : for, while outward 
acts are spoken of as so vile and worthless, from what is it 
that they are contradistinguished ? From faith. Faith then 
is not vile and worthless. Nor will it be a sufficient defence 
of this consequence to rejoin, that faith receives all its value 
from being the gift of the Holy Ghost ; for this is the precise 
defence which is disallowed, when urged in behalf of outward 

2* 



270 



APPENDIX. 



acts. It is then answered, Nay, but there is something of one's 
own mixed up with the gift of the Holy Ghost ; there is some 
personal agency, something human, something to tempt a man 
to rest on himself in such acts. 

I suppose it to be agreed on all hands, that every act, even 
in the inner acts of faith, must involve some consent, or will- 
ingness, or at least willingness to be acted upon, on the part 
of the man in whom they take place. 

If, then, the personal agency that is mingled with spiritual 
grace in the outer acts, be sufficient to vitiate them, and take 
from them all character of pleasing and acceptableness with 
God, how must the persons, who argue so, think of the per- 
sonal agency that works with or submits to spiritual grace, 
in the case of the inner acts of faith ? Must they not of neces- 
sity attribute it to that proper goodness which they refuse to 
the other agency ? 

This danger is only more deeply incurred by the miserable 
expedient of interpreting acceptable faith to be a disclamation, 
a disowning of all personal power of acting acceptably : for, 

1. The act of abnegation is itself an act, and a voluntary 
one; just as stripping off one's clothes is as much an act, as 
putting them on. 

2. It is a self-contradictory act, — an act of one trying not 
to act; just as if a man should say, "I cannot speak/' and so 
claim the credit of silence. 

3. It is an act which cannot be attributed intelligibly to 
any other than a man's own self ; and so whatever goodness 
or value it may be supposed to have, seems to be broadly 
claimed as a personal and meritorious goodness. 

I mean, therefore, to say, that faith, when regarded as 
something in a man, must be of necessity, 1. Belief; or, 2. 
Virtue, incipient or habitual, grounded on belief; or, 3. Belief 
and such virtue together. There is nothing between. The 
very earliest movements of voluntary will, the very first 
beginnings of morality, the first elementary stirrings of action 
towards God and heaven, are, in their degree, virtue. 

If, then, it is answered, faith is the grasping, faith is the 
realizing, faith is the appropriating of the promises of God, I 
should reply, that grasping, realizing, appropriating, are all 
acts. If a man intellectually believes in the promises of God, 
and morally loves and desires them, then, in proportion to his 
imaginative power and strength, he grasps at them, realizes 



APPENDIX. 



271 



them, regards them as evident though unseen, and substantial 
though only hoped for. To believe is, itself, to realize. If a 
promise is made to a man, and he believes it, he does to that 
extent and degree make it to himself a reality. His belief is, 
pro tanto, a realization ; it operates to make him see what is 
unseen, to give substance to what is, hitherto, only clad in 
words. As memory substantiates the past, so belief substan- 
tiates the future ; and man lives on, not only in the single 
point of time in which he stands at each moment, but carry- 
ing along with him also the whole transacted past, and the 
whole believed future. 

Love, again, true love of a thing unseen and hoped for, is 
a grasping, realizing love. Love lives on the objects of its 
love ; in proportion as it is intense, it does so more. But the 
realizing is not one moral condition or process, and the loving 
another j still less is the realizing a precious thing, and the 
loving comparatively a vile one. To realize is a property of 
true love, as it is of true hope, as it is of true zeal, as it is of 
any earnest and deep feeling. 

Again, if it be said that faith is the reposing or relying 
upon the merits of the Lord, the trusting ourselves and placing 
all our hopes upon what He has done for us, I should again 
reply, that reposing, relying, trusting, placing hope, are all 
moral acts — acts of a virtue, — acts wherein (the mind intel- 
lectually believing the great doctrines of Christian revelation) 
a divinely enlightened conscience crushes and destroys the 
risings of self-complacent, self-relying emotions, and directs 
to their due objects those of gratitude and hope. 

G-rasping, realizing, appropriating, when accompanied with 
feeling, reposing, relying, trusting, &c, are all moral acts, — 
acts of virtue, — acts of virtue grounded on belief. To repre- 
sent them as well-pleasing to Grod in themselves is to incur the 
condemnation of a law of works ; to speak of them as well- 
pleasing -to Glod in Christ, as done by the influence of His 
Spirit, is to speak of them truly, and to speak of them as all 
other Christian activities, inward and outward, may be spoken 
of with no less truth. 

There is not a word in the argumentative portions of the 
Epistle to the Romans which can legitimately be brought to 
prove that there is any difference in acceptableness before 
God between Christian faith, supposed to be trust and reliance 
on God, and Christian deeds. St. Paul does in no place dis- 



272 



APPENDIX. 



tinguish them, if indeed they are capable of being distin- 
guished. He is not occupied with any argument which 
requires them to be distinguished. It is therefore simple 
confusion to apply to a distinction of modern times expressions 
in that Epistle which are used in respect of a very different 
distinction. 

The meaning of St. Paul appears to come out very clearly 
from the following verses of the third chapter. 

" Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be 
justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 
But now the righteousness of God without the law is mani- 
fested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets j even 
the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ 
unto all and upon all them that believe ; for there is no differ- 
ence : For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of 
God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemp- 
tion that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a 
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his right- 
eousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the 
forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this time his right- 
eousness ; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which 
believeth in J esus. Where is boasting then ? It is excluded. 
By what law ? of works ? Nay, but by the law of faith. 
Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith with- 
out the deeds of the law." 

What is St. Paul distinguishing ? Plainly, as it would 
seem, the notion of purchasing salvation from that of receiving 
it of grace. " To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned 
of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but 
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is 
counted for righteousness/' 

Against whom is St. Paul making this distinction ? Plainly 
against the Jews. What then did the Jews maintain ? A 
salvation purchased by obedience in doing the works of the 
law. What does St. Paul oppose to this ? A salvation freely 
given of God to faith. " Therefore it is of faith, that it might 
be by grace." Did then the Jews maintain the meritorious- 
ness of Christian deeds against Christian faith ? Not at all ; 
they neither made nor could make such a distinction : and 
therefore such a distinction would not have been at all relevant 
to the argument held against them. Who can oppose that 
St. Paul, arguing against the meritorious value of unsanctified 



APPENDIX. 



273 



Jewish works, and the idea of salvation purchased by them, 
would conduct that argument by drawing a distinction between 
the comparative value of the inward and outward activities of 
the sanctified Christian heart ? 

But does he not say that the Christian scheme offers the 
justification of God to faith? and if so, what is faith? An 
important question, doubtless ; and a natural one in this stage 
of the inquiry ; but one to be answered, not out of the distinc- 
tions of these chapters, but from the general use and manner 
of speaking of the Holy Scriptures. The distinctions of these 
chapters refer to the question whether these men are justified 
by faith through the grace of God, or those by inherently 
deserving deeds of their own ; they do not refer to the meta- 
physical nature of faith as distinguished from something else 
ensuing from faith in the same man. 

But, again, may not the argument of St. Paul, though 
primarily directed against the supposed meritorious works of 
the Jews, be in a secondary manner directed against supposed 
meritorious works of Christians ? Does not the analogy of 
the cases make his statements as strong against these as against 
those ? 

Most undoubtedly it does. If any baptized man thinks to 
purchase salvation by the value or merit of his deeds, or his 
words, or his thoughts, or of any thing else that is his, he is, 
pro tanto, a Jew, looking for salvation to some law of works, 
deserting and abandoning the salvation freely given of G-od 
by Jesus Christ. 

Only let it be remembered, that the condemnation is as 
strong and as unequivocal against those who rely on their 
inner as on their outer acts, — against those who prize the 
conscious inward graspings which they call faith, as against 
those who set a value on their outward and visible deeds, 
which are, on the same theory, called works. 



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